Swiggy buys on demand delivery firm Scootsy for Rs 50 cr

Food delivery firm Swiggy has acquired Mumbai-based on-demand delivery firm Scootsy in what is being seen as a distress sale.

The deal is valued at about Rs 50 crore (under $8 million) which is expected to close all in cash and retention of Scootsy’s brand name in Mumbai, said three people aware of the developments.

Scootsy’s founding team may be joining Swiggy’s management, said one of the persons. ET could not however independently verify this. The acquisition was first reported by Moneycontrol.com.

Founded in 2015 as an on-demand delivery platform in Mumbai, Scootsy has so far raised about Rs 25 crore so far from Agnus Capital and Khattar Holdings.

While the firm aggregates premium dining options catering to a niche, premium, high ticket size food delivery play in the city, about 25-30% of its business comes from non-food hyperlocal delivery operations including daily essentials, flower and gifting.

Heavy capital flow in the food delivery segment amongst the top national players rendered Scootsy helpless in its attempts to raise capital over the past year.

A large part of the cash component of the deal will be used to pay salaries of Scootsy’s employees who haven’t been paid for over 3 months, according to one of the persons cited above. Swiggy and Scootsy did not immediately respond to ET’s email queries.

“The funding crunch has almost crippled Scootsy. The strength of riders has reduced impacting deliveries and the lack of capital has hit the business hard,” said a person directly aware of the development.

Scootsy currently has under 700 delivery agents in Mumbai across its food and non-food delivery operations delivering around 2000 orders per day. The firm has a strong hold in South Mumbai, Lower Parel and some parts of Bandra where several premium dining restaurants are located.

Swiggy delivers about 5,00,000 orders per day and has a fleet size of 55,000 all over the country.

Swiggy, which has been targeting hyperlocal market, the deal adds value through Scootsy’s premium customer base, which it is looking to tap into for other delivery categories as well.