The Making Of Swiggy

Every entrepreneur’s journey is different with their own share of highs and lows, but what binds each one of them is the passion to commit, and the ‘never-say-no’ attitude. We at Accel are proud to have associated with such go-getters, whose journeys are motivating life lessons for many new and upcoming entrepreneurs. Here, we share one such inspirational founder’s story.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

Nandan Reddy, 29, and Sriharsha Majety, 31, both alumni of Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani, are second-time-lucky entrepreneurs. In 2013, the two started their first venture Bundl, a logistics aggregator that connected small and medium companies to courier service providers.

Started in August 2014, food ordering and delivery startup Swiggy today has more than 5,000,000 mobile application installations, and has become the household name for anyone and everyone who wants to order-in food.

Tying up with more than 25,000 restaurant owners, Swiggy has its own fleet of local delivery boys with operations across 13 cities in India, including Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad and more. While their story today looks impressive, the founder’s success wasn’t achieved overnight, and there were a few roadblocks on the way.

After shutting down their first venture, Harsha was not convinced that this was the end of their entrepreneurial journey. Instead, he started looking out for other opportunities and how he could convert his lessons into something fruitful.

He says, “Our experience in Bundl made us realise that logistics companies were pathetic at utilising technology to help their business. We took that as a cue, and wanted to start another venture with intersection of technology and logistics. We didn’t want any aggregators and build a logistics company that utilised technology to create customer delight.”

They also saw that technology was making things work with a push of a button. Ola and Uber gaining success through their on-app booking made them realise the potential of hyperlocal delivery, and that was the genesis of Swiggy.

After almost a year in business, they realised their focus had to change. They had spotted the need for an online hyperlocal logistics company in the restaurant industry. By August 2014, the duo rolled out the online food ordering and delivery startup Swiggy, along with Rahul Jaimini, 29, an IIT Kharagpur alumnus, who was then working as a software engineer with online fashion etailer Myntra. Jaimini was roped in to build the startup’s technology infrastructure.

“In this journey of entrepreneurship, I was only very stubborn about loving what I was doing. When I left UK, I was sure that this is the only route. I was happy to work with early startups if they would hire me. But, as luck would have it none of my circle was closely involved in starting up at that time. Hence, I had no other option but to dive in myself,” he adds.

Swiggy began operations in Bengaluru’s upscale neighbourhood of Koramangala with six delivery executives and 25 restaurants on its platform. Today, it has scaled up with over 6,000 delivery executives across NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata and Pune.

A result of the founders’ dedication and persuasion, within four years of its inception, Swiggy is a successful hyperlocal delivery platform and a household name for online food delivery.