Swiggy starts recruiting for its new business

The firm is in the process of identifying internal candidates and will also hire external talent to add to the initial team, and has put an alert on the professional networking platform LinkedIn, one of the two people said. “Swiggy Bazaar is our latest foray into the trillion-dollar grocery market and will be a community group buying destination. Over the past year, consumers have found new ways to access better food and some of these behaviors have proven resilient, making Swiggy a target tailwind of the market. Swiggy Bazaar will act like a startup and promises to be another big bet for us in the fast-growing e-grocery market,” Swiggy said in a post on LinkedIn. Swiggy Bazaar will pilot new community-based marketing strategies , it said. Its core team will work in three areas—products and engineering, community and marketing, as well as business operations. The firm will run a pilot on community-buying for groceries and other household perishables, the people said.

Swiggy declined to comment on Mint’s queries on its new initiative.

Social commerce is on the rise with consumers turning to buying essentials, clothing and household items online. CityMall, backed by Accel Partners, Elevation Capital and Jungle Ventures, is one such firm selling grocery, lifestyle and curated products through peer-to-peer referrals on WhatsApp.

DealShare and Meesho are other social commerce startups that have seen high investor interest recently. Recently, YouTube made its debut in the social commerce sector, by signing a definitive agreement to acquire simsim.

Media reports said Swiggy is in talks with new and existing investors, including SoftBank and Prosus, to raise up to $600 million in the new round at a valuation of $10 billion.