After expanding to three new cities Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Jaipur over the last three months, Bangalore-bases food ordering and delivery platform Swiggy is launching its service south Indian cities of Coimbatore and Kochi.

People in Kochi and Coimbatore will now have their food delivered at at their doorsteps with multiple payment options.

Both the cities witness an amalgamation of interesting cuisines. Coimbatore’s culinary culture consists of a diverse mix of cosmopolitan taste that meets its deep-rooted traditional cuisine. Kochi, on the other hand, is one of biggest cultural and financial hubs of Kerala. It boasts of the pan-Indian culinary culture, mixed along with Middle-eastern flavors.

“As India’s largest food ordering and delivery platform, Southern India is pivotal to our vision of ‘Changing the way India Eats’. Coimbatore and Kochi are some of the fastest growing Indian cities, that have a thriving local culinary culture. People of Coimbatore are passionate about their food and take immense pride in their diverse local cuisine. Swiggy will provide them with the convenience of relishing their favourite meals with just a touch of a button,” said Srivats TS, Vice President – Marketing at Swiggy.

“Kochi is a melting pot of culture, art and tradition, and the same reflects in their cuisine, we are excited to bring our lightning fast deliveries to this thriving metropolis,” he added.

Swiggy has more than 25,000 restaurants partners across thirteen cities in the country.

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Bangalore-based SmartQ, which provides digitisation services for food courts and cafeterias, today announced that it has raised close to $1 million from an investor group, led by a consortium of Dubai-based investors.

Existing investor YourNest also participated in this round.

The foodtech startup intends to use the funds to expand in India and globally, strengthen the team. It also plans to roll out new products.

Additionally, Anvita Varshney, former Managing Director of Lazada group, has joined as the Board of Advisors for SmartQ.

Founded in 2014 by Krishna Wage and Abhishek Ashok, SmartQ provides integrated digital cafeteria experience across different sectors, including corporates, malls, multiplexes, stadiums, hospitals and colleges. It transforms any conventional cafeteria into one that is completely digital and cashless.

By offering completely customised 360-degree digital cafeteria solutions with multiple ordering channels like mobile application and automated billing kiosks, SmartQ helps in improving consumers’ experience while saving their time and cost.

SmartQ claims it has been growing 50 per cent month-on-month and clocks over 1,00,000+ transactions every day.

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Bangalore-based food ordering and delivery startup Swiggy has raised $80 million in Series E funding, led by Naspers, a global internet and entertainment group.

Earlier investors Accel India, SAIF Partners India, Bessemer Venture Partners, Harmony Partners and Norwest Venture Partners have joined the round.

As per agreement, Ashutosh Sharma, head of investments in India for Naspers will join the Swiggy board.

The new funds will propel the next phase of Swiggy’s growth by introducing a suite of new product and service offerings to enhance its superlative customer experience, it said in a press release. Swiggy also announced plans to double its technology headcount and increase investments across core engineering, automation, data sciences, machine learning and personalisation.

Launched in 2015, Swiggy is a leading one-stop solution for consumers’ food needs. It claims its innovative technology, large delivery service, and customer focus enable a host of benefits including lightning fast deliveries, live order tracking, no restrictions on minimum order amounts, and strong customer support.

“In a span of three years, Swiggy has been instrumental in changing the way India eats by delivering delightful customer experiences. This investment by Naspers is further testimony to Swiggy’s vision and performance,” said Sriharsha Majety, co-founder and CEO, Swiggy.

“As the market leader, we are leveraging our deep understanding of the Indian consumer and the gaps in the market to introduce disruptive and highly differentiated service offerings; making online food ordering and delivery more seamless and reliable to users everywhere,” he added.

Swiggy has partnered with 12,000 restaurants across eight locations in India, including Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Chennai.

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