The rivalry between India’s leading two new-age firms has intensified as Swiggy is reportedly planning to sponsor Shark Tank Season 4 where rival Zomato’s CEO served as a judge in the previous season. However, Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal has announced that he will not be returning to the fourth season of the popular reality show, citing Swiggy’s sponsorship as the reason.
Goyal revealed his departure from Shark Tank India Season 4 at a startup award show held on Saturday.
“I unfortunately can’t go back because Swiggy sponsored Shark Tank this time and kicked me out,” Goyal said.
According to a report by Moneycontrol, the sister publication of Storyboard18, Swiggy is close to finalizing the deal to sponsor the fourth season of Shark Tank India for Rs 25 crore.
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Shark Tank India is a business reality TV show that airs on Sony Television. The filming of the fourth season began recently. As per the media reports, Shaadi.com founder Anupam Mittal, Emcure Pharmaceuticals’s Executive Director Namita Thapar, Lenskart co-founder Peyush Bansal, and Oyo Rooms founder Ritesh Agarwal will continue to serve as judges for the upcoming season.
Last month, Swiggy updated its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). The Bengaluru-based company is likely to make its debut in the stock market by year-end.
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As per the Swiggy DRHP, the company proposed to spend up to Rs 1000 crore, over four calendar years on brand marketing services across various channels, including traditional media (including TV, print, and radio media), OTT media, and digital media. The food and grocery delivery platform will use its estimated net proceeds of Rs 929.5 crore for brand marketing and business promotion expenses until FY2028 to enhance brand awareness and visibility. In the fiscal year 2025, Swiggy’s estimated utilization of net proceeds stands at Rs 61.5 crore, followed by Rs 239 crore in FY2026, Rs 266 crore in FY2027 and Rs 363 crore in FY2028, respectively.
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“We intend to continue to invest in targeted marketing campaigns and other brand-building initiatives, cost-effectively, to create and increase brand recall, attract and retain more users, restaurant partners, merchant partners, brand partners, and delivery partners to our platform,” Swiggy mentioned in its DRHP.
Separately, Swiggy has formally launched its bulk order service known as the Swiggy XL EV fleet. The fleet comprises electric vehicles to serve large orders in one go The fleet undergoing a pilot run, for the past few weeks, was formally launched on Saturday in Gurugram.