What the business is
Bengaluru-based food delivery and quick-commerce company, a decacorn valued at as much as $10.7B
The bet
Cutting 5-6% of headcount ahead of an IPO will move the foodtech and quick-commerce company toward profitability and make it listing-ready
How it started
Swiggy reached a peak valuation of $10.7 billion and decacorn status after a $700 million round in January 2022. In January 2023 it let go of a similar number of staff and shut down its meat marketplace, citing cost-cutting.
What happened
In January 2024 two sources told Entrackr that between 350 and 400 employees, 5-6% of the workforce, would be laid off with standard severance, the largest layoff of the year so far and Swiggy's second in 12 months. The cuts were reported to be connected to potential public listing plans in FY25. Swiggy also saw exits of executives including Sidharth Satpathy, Dale Vaz, Karthik Gurumurthy, Ashish Lingamneni, Nishad Kenkre and Anuj Rathi in FY24, while Invesco raised its valuation mark to $8.3 billion.
What has to be true
Swiggy wanted to turn profitable by the second half of 2024
Sources tied the cuts to its planned public listing in the next fiscal year
A prolonged funding winter pushed late-stage Indian startups to prioritise profitability over growth
It had already cut a similar number of staff in January 2023 and shut its meat marketplace to save costs
What can be applied
Pre-IPO profitability pushes show up first as headcount cuts and executive turnover, but unconfirmed, source-based reports should be read as reporting, not as company statements.
Aftermath
As of 2024-01-25, the layoffs were reported by sources and unconfirmed by Swiggy, which was preparing for a possible FY25 listing with its valuation marked at $8.3B by Invesco.
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