When we launched Swiggy, we ended the day with zero orders: CEO Majety

Swiggy, celebrating its 10th anniversary in August, recalls starting with zero orders on its first day. The CEO Sriharsha Majety thanked early adopters and highlighted a partner restaurant that went from two orders a day to over 7,000 orders in a day. Swiggy now partners with over 3,00,000 restaurants, attributing much of its success to the early adopters.

"When we launched Swiggy on August 6, 2014, we ended the day with zero orders. The next day, we got our first-ever order, marking the true beginning of our journey," Majety shared on Tuesday.

"Amongst our earliest partners was Truffles, which started with just two orders a day on Swiggy. Since then, they've done as many as 7,261 orders in a single day, showcasing how far we've come together," Majety said. 

He added, "Today, we proudly partner with over 3,00,000 restaurants. Much of our success is thanks to those early adopters who didn’t just join us but became core to our journey."

The Bengaluru-based food delivery company is set to go public later this year, while its rival Zomato's share price has surged. The Gurugram-based startup reported a profit for the fifth consecutive time in the June quarter. 

According to Majety, having a listed competitor has both positive and negative aspects. On the positive side, they don't have to explain concepts such as on-demand services, the gig worker economy, and hyperlocal operations. However, the downside is that their performance will be constantly compared every quarter.

Majety recently said at an event, “We definitely want to make sure that it is a good trajectory and there are many quarters that are good and some that are off – it (having a listed competitor) is a net positive for sure.”

About Swiggy:

Swiggy, a popular online food delivery app, was founded in August 2014 by Sriharsha Majety, Nandan Reddy, and Rahul Jaimini. Before Swiggy, Majety and Reddy launched an e-commerce platform called Bundl in 2011, focusing on shipping services.

They shut down Bundl in 2014, to pivot to the food delivery market. They teamed up with Jaimini, who had experience working at Myntra and started Swiggy in Bengaluru. Initially, Swiggy partnered with a few restaurants in Koramangala and promised food delivery within 40 minutes using just six delivery drivers.

By March 2015, Swiggy was handling one million orders monthly.