Rapido Looking To Close $550 Mn Funding Round: Report

Shortly after Swiggy’s board approved a proposal to sell its entire stake in Rapido for $270 Mn (INR 2,400 Cr), the ride-hailing unicorn is now reported to be eyeing closing the funding round at $500 Mn to $550 Mn.

The round would be a mix of primary and secondary transactions, including Swiggy’s stake sale, ET reported. The primary component of the deal would be of $300 Mn, with Dutch investor Prosus looking to pump in $240 Mn to $250 Mn. The remaining amount will come from WestBridge.

A separate report by MoneyControl said that Accel is also looking to participate in the round.

This comes a day after Swiggy said that it would sign share purchase agreements to offload its stake in Rapido, with Prosus buying shares worth $221.7 Mn (INR 1,968 Cr) and WestBridge lapping up shares worth $48.6 Mn (INR 431.5 Cr).

The deal is likely to value Rapido at $2.3 Bn, more than double the valuation it attained via its unicorn minting round in 2024. In September 2024, the ride-hailing major raised $200 Mn in its Series E funding round led by WestBridge at a valuation of $1.1 Bn.

Prosus declined to comment on the funding round. The investor has been bullish on the Indian market beyond Rapido, with its CEO Fabricio Bloisi saying earlier this year that it expects five Indian startups to go public in FY26.

While the firm minted hefty returns from the IPOs of its portfolio startups Urban Company and BlueStone this year, Meesho and Captain Fresh India are also in the process of going public.

“India presents Prosus with incredible opportunity. In late 2024, Swiggy achieved a major milestone by going public. Recently, we invested in Rapido which is growing more than 100 percent year-on-year in ride hailing, and doing more than 3 Mn rides per day,” Bloisi said in the firm’s shareholder letter for FY25.

The development comes at a time when Rapido has forayed into the food delivery business with the launch of Ownly to challenge Zomato and Swiggy. The entry into the food delivery segment was the reason behind Swiggy selling its stake in the startup. The fresh funding will help Rapido scale up its newest business.

On the financial front, Rapido is yet to file the financial statements for FY25. In FY24, it trimmed its loss by more than 45% to INR 370 Cr INR 675 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Operating revenue zoomed 46% to INR 648.1 Cr during the year from INR 443 Cr in FY23.

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