Swiggy appoints EPL CEO Anand Kripalu as board chairperson as it gets ready for IPO

On-demand food and grocery delivery unicorn Swiggy has named FMCG veteran Anand Kripalu as an Independent Director and the Chairperson of its Board of Directors, as the company prepares to launch its initial public offering (IPO).

Per multiple media reports, Swiggy is contemplating a stock market debut in 2024 to raise an estimated $1 billion through the IPO. The company has reportedly selected investment banks for the IPO.

Kripalu’s addition is viewed as part of the company’s efforts to bolster its corporate governance framework before going public. The move follows the addition of three independent directors in February—Mallika Srinivasan, Chairman and Managing Director of Indian tractor major TAFE; Shailesh Haribhakti, Chairman of financial services firm Shailesh Haribhakti & Associates; and Sahil Barua, Managing Director and CEO of the publicly listed logistics start-up Delhivery.

With nearly four decades of experience in the FMCG industry, Kripalu currently serves as the Managing Director and Global CEO of EPL Ltd (formerly Essel Propack Limited), the world’s largest specialty packaging company. Before this, he was MD and CEO of Diageo India. Kripalu has also held leadership positions at Mondelez International (formerly Cadbury) and Unilever.

“Swiggy has transformed food and grocery delivery in the country, bringing unparalleled convenience to millions of homes. I am honoured to join its accomplished board, and look forward to lending my experience and perspective as Swiggy shapes the future of convenience,” Kripalu said.

He is a graduate in Electronics from IIT, Madras, and holds an MBA from IIM, Calcutta.

“Anand is a veteran in the consumer goods industry, and his deep knowledge and perspective will be instrumental in guiding Swiggy as we continue to innovate and redefine the on-demand delivery landscape in India,“ Sriharsha Majety, Group CEO of Swiggy, said.

Before bringing the independent directors, the food-tech company’s board consisted of Majety and Nandan Reddy, Co-founders of Swiggy; Larry Illg, CEO of  Prosus Edtech and Food; Ashutosh Sharma, Head of Investments- India, Prosus Ventures; Sumer Juneja, Managing Partner, India and EMEA, SoftBank Investment Advisors and Anand Daniel, Partner at Accel.

The company was valued at $10.7 billion during its most recent fundraising round in 2022. However, one of its stakeholders, Invesco, initially reduced the valuation to $5.5 billion in May of this year before marking it up to $7.85 billion at July’s closure.

In its annual report in July, Dutch-listed tech investor Prosus said its share of loss in the Bengaluru-based company rose to $180 million in FY23, up from $100 million in FY22. This increase was attributed to investments in Instamart, Swiggy’s quick-commerce arm, which ‘peaked’ in the year.  Swiggy, however, stated that its peak investments in Instamart were behind the company.

Swiggy’s losses for the entire FY23 amounted to approximately $545 million, representing an 80 per cent increase compared to around $300 million in FY22. Similarly, Prosus disclosed that its share of revenue in Swiggy grew by 40 per cent to $297 million in FY23, indicating Swiggy's full-year revenue for FY23 to be around $900 million.

According to Prosus’ filings, Swiggy’s gross merchandise value (GMV) only grew to $2.6 billion in FY23, up from $2.3 billion in FY22, representing a modest increase of approximately 13 per cent. Swiggy’s growth in GMV was primarily driven by an expanded restaurant base, with over 272,000 enabled restaurants on its platform, up from approximately 197,000 in FY22.

Majety had announced earlier that the company’s core business, food delivery, turned profitable in March 2023, excluding ESOP costs and was on a path to profitability.

Also Read: Swiggy's payment gateway stops working, food delivery platform says 'experiencing a technical down time'