The Background
Coming from a family of entrepreneurs, Sriharsha Majety had always been inspired to start his own company. Post graduating as an engineer from BITS-Pilani, Majety got his MBA from IIM-Bangalore. After a brief stint as an investment banker in London, Majety returned to India to pursue excitement again. Sriharsha Majety's love for traveling had taken him to backpacking voyages across Southeast Asia & Europe, and he credits his experience during that time to have shaped his entrepreneurial journey.
The Venture
Since he couldn't get hired in an early-stage startup like he wanted, Sriharsha Majety decided to build his own. Majety joined up with his college-mate Nandan Reddy, and they started discussing potential spaces where they could start-up. The booming Indian e-commerce industry stuck out to them, and they were sold on the potential of the logistics & shipping domain. Hence, they started Bundl - a courier service aggregator. “We thought that we will find that competitive advantage by being not just a pure software company or not just a pure offline company,” Majety says.
The Pivot
The lack of a tech Co-Founder and changing market dynamics meant that Bundl couldn't make it past a year. Not losing hope, Sriharsha Majety and his co-founder decided to pursue another venture and took inspiration from the huge success of Ola & Uber. These companies were using technology and the convenience of mobile phones to boost customer satisfaction. They saw the potential in hyper-local food delivery, and thus, the idea for Swiggy was born. Sriharsha Majety and Reddy realized they needed a tech co-founder, and hence brought in Rahul Janimini, an accomplished coder, to help build the platform. In August 2014 they opened operations out of a small office in Bangalore, and in 2015, raised $2 million in their first funding round. In 2018, Swiggy gained the status of Unicorn and in 2022, it became a decacorn with a valuation of $10.7 billion.
Entrepreneurship