The quick commerce race is wide open again. Swiggy finally closed its much-watched INR 10,000 Cr (roughly $1.2 Bn) qualified institutional placement (QIP) and is preparing for its biggest splash after last year’s IPO. 

It marks a critical inflection point for India’s quick commerce battlefield. While Swiggy has framed this capital raise as a war chest for growth, a closer examination of the company’s recent performance — in particular, Instamart — suggests a more nuanced strategy. 

Despite all the talk about building up capacity to take on rivals, the QIP is as much about securing financial flexibility, shoring up the balance sheet and pursuing the path to profitability which the company had guided the market on in October. 

Sources close to the management articulated a clear positioning for the capital raise: strengthening the balance sheet to deter aggressive competition and maintain strategic flexibility in a market estimated between $600 Bn and $1 Tn, depending on which categories one looks at. 

This is the depth that Swiggy is looking to tap with its fundraise, which will chiefly power the Instamart expansion spree and the move towards the inventory model, which has been hinted at for months.  

Swiggy allocated 26.7 Cr shares at INR 375 apiece—a 4% discount to the floor price of INR 390.5—demonstrating robust institutional backing from major mutual funds, including SBI, ICICI Prudential, HDFC and Kotak Mahindra.

Crucially, the company emphasised that this raise is “unrelated” to its June 2026 contribution margin break-even guidance for Instamart. This separation is important, and by stating this, the company is looking to project this as a long-term fundraise, a war chest for several quarters to come. 

In Q2, Swiggy claimed its quick commerce business has already demonstrated its ability to improve unit economics. In Q2 FY26, Instamart’s adjusted EBITDA loss narrowed by 5.2% quarter-on-quarter, with contribution margins improving by 200 basis points. The company moved from -4.6% to -2.6% contribution margin, positioning itself just 250 basis points from breakeven. 

What Does The QIP Unlock?

Swiggy’s qualified institutional placement round is the largest by a new-age tech company till........

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