Swiggy Enters Retail Grocery Business, Acquires Distribution Company LYNK

Online food delivery platform Swiggy on Thursday said it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire LYNK Logistics. With this, the company has entered India’s food and grocery retail market.

“After the acquisition, LYNK will continue to operate as an independent business led by co-founder and CEO Shekhar Bhende,” Swiggy said in a statement. The company did not disclose the financial details of the deal.

With this acquisition, Swiggy enters India’s food and grocery retail market, which is among the world’s largest and fastest-growing and is estimated to be at $570 billion in size and is expected to grow at 8 per cent a year.

Sriharsha Majety, CEO of Swiggy, said, “I am excited to have the LYNK team join Swiggy. LYNK is uniquely positioned in the retail distribution space with their brand-first, tech-led operating model and has demonstrated success with multiple FMCG brands. Our experience in supply chain and logistics gives Swiggy the unique opportunity to help LYNK scale up their offerings and empower retailers to serve their customers better.”

Leveraging its proprietary technology stack, LYNK offers faster order-to-delivery turnaround and improved on-the-shelf availability through better fill rates to retail stores enabling them to increase sales and serve their customers better. After the acquisition, LYNK will leverage Swiggy’s strength in technology and logistics to rapidly scale their existing platform.

Shekhar Bhende, co-founder of LYNK, said, “Over the last few years, we have focused squarely on helping FMCG brands to meet their retail ambitions. Given our rapid growth, we believe we are uniquely placed to lead the digitization of retail distribution in India.”

He added that with Swiggy, the company now hopes to further accelerate its growth and double down on the tremendous opportunity before it.

Avendus acted as the sole financial advisor to LYNK and its shareholders on this transaction.

Founded in 2015 by Abinav Raja and Shekhar Bhende, LYNK is one of India’s largest tech-driven FMCG retail distribution companies. LYNK enables leading FMCG brands to grow their retail presence through its network of over 1 lakh retail stores across the top-8 cities of India.

LYNK works with leading FMCG brands as an authorised distributor, connecting them to retail stores and offering a one-stop solution to achieve their sales and growth goals.