India’s Anti-Monopoly Watchdog OKs SoftBank Investment In Food Delivery App Swiggy

SoftBank‘s Vision Fund II will now be able to invest in Swiggy, the food delivery app, after being approved by the Indian anti-monopoly watchdog, a report from Economic Times says.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) said on Twitter that it had approved acquisition of “a certain stake” in Bundl Technologies, or Swiggy, by SoftBank.

The new funding comes after Swiggy saw a $800 million funding round, which had participation from investors including Falcon Edge, Amansa Capital, Think Investments, Carmignac and Goldman Sachs. SoftBank has been angling to get into the food delivery sector since 2017 and has held talks with Swiggy as well as its chief rival Zomato.

But Swiggy wants to diversify beyond just food delivery, and has tried to incorporate other adjacent areas like groceries and daily essential services. This won favor with SoftBank.

SoftBank’s Vision Fund II has also worked as a co-investor with Zomato, though, on e-grocer Grofers, the report says.

SoftBank was reported last April to be considering a $450 million investment in Swiggy, with the latter company likely being valued around $5 million.

Swiggy had also come off a funding round around April with funding led by Falcon Edge Capital and Goldman Sachs, with participation from Accel and Naspers, which the company said would be used to help out with expansions for the company.

Masayoshi Son, founder of SoftBank, said his decision was based on Swiggy’s aforementioned attempts to branch out in other directions.

Zomato will also be rolling out its own initial public offering (IPO), on July 14. PYMNTS previously reported that Zomato raised $562.3 million from investors ahead of said IPO. The company was able to secure around 45 percent total of the $1.3 billion it plans on raising for the IPO, and the investors had subscribed the shares at $1.