'A tiny startup in Bangalore...': TinyOwl's Shubham Bansal says they “joked” about acquiring Swiggy

Shubham Bansal, the founder of the food delivery startup TinyOwl, has shared insights into the early days of food delivery giant Swiggy and its rise after 2014. Taking to the social media platform X, Bansal said that back then, TinyOwl had raised huge funding and expanded across 5 cities with an employee base of over 1,000 and an order book replete with over 50,000 orders. 

Swiggy - a "tiny startup"

Referring to Swiggy, he called it a "tiny startup in Bangalore" that struggled with very little funding and even less business at the time.

"I was a founding member of TinyOwl - a hot food delivery startup in 2014. We've raised $20 mn+. Expanded 5 cities. 1000+ employees. 50,000+ orders daily. Meanwhile, a tiny startup in Bangalore was struggling with less than $1M in funding. They're doing maybe 1/10th of our volume," Bansal wrote. 

He even recalled how the management at TinyOwl would joke about acquiring the rival food delivery brand.

"Internally, we joke about acquiring them. 'We could kill them easily.' That tiny startup? It was Swiggy. The rest is history. The thing is, aspiring founders always ask me the same question: 'I have this startup idea, but I'm not sure if it will work. Is it good?'" he wrote. 

"My food delivery experience taught me this: Ideas are worth 20 rupees a kilo. The difference isn't in the thinking. It's in the doing. If you're sitting on an idea right now, what's one small action you could take TODAY? One customer call. One rough prototype. One embarrassing pitch. There is a market for everything. Every market needs multiple players. So the only advice is - Execute fast. Execute now. Execute always," he signed off. 

I was a founding member of TinyOwl - a hot food delivery startup in 2014.

We've raised $ 20 Mn+. Expanded 5 cities. 1000+ Employees. 50,000+ orders daily.

Meanwhile, a tiny startup in Bangalore was struggling with less than $1M in funding. They're doing maybe 1/10th of our…

— Shubham Bansal (@BakarBansal) June 11, 2025

About TinyOwl

In 2016, the Mumbai-based food delivery startup TinyOwl had to shut shop in most cities due to rising logistics costs and market saturation.

At the time, TinyOwl carried out mass layoffs. In 2015, one of the founders, Gaurav Chaudhary, was detained for 2 days by laid-off employees over past-due checks. 

Also read: BigBasket to enter quick commerce with launch of 10-minute food delivery by FY26 (startuppedia.in)