Swiggy, the online food delivery platform, announced on Tuesday that it has facilitated the distribution of over INR 450 crore to over 8,000 restaurants through its financing program since 2017.

This program assists restaurants in obtaining financial products like term loans and credit lines from various lending firms, including Indifi, Incred, PayU, IIFL, and FT Cash.

Out of the 8,000 restaurants that have utilized these services, 3,000 obtained loans in the year 2022.

“The NBFCs (non-banking finance companies) will soon facilitate more solutions like pre-approved loans to enable our partners to gain easier and quicker access to capital, driving even more growth for their businesses,” said Swapnil Bajpai, vice president – supply at Swiggy.

Swiggy has been engaged in a fierce competition with its publicly traded rival, Zomato, to capture a larger share of the food delivery market. Brokerage reports suggest that Swiggy’s market share hovers around 45%, providing Zomato with a competitive advantage over its Bengaluru-based counterpart. Additionally, both companies compete in the fast-commerce sector, with Swiggy’s Instamart and Zomato-owned Blinkit vying for dominance.

Swiggy is actively considering a public listing, and reports from late August indicated that the company had initiated discussions with financial institutions to evaluate its valuation. This move is in preparation for an anticipated initial public offering (IPO) in 2024. The company had temporarily suspended its IPO plans for several months due to market uncertainties.

As of August 28, the U.S.-based asset management firm Baron Capital Group increased its valuation of Swiggy by 34% to reach $8.54 billion.

On June 27, Prosus, the largest shareholder of Swiggy, reported that its portion of Swiggy’s losses had surged to $180 million in fiscal year 2023 (FY23), up from $100 million in FY22. This resulted in an overall loss of approximately $540 million for Swiggy for the fiscal year.