Swiggy Denies Claims by Supposed Ex-Employees That It Fudged Numbers

After hours of "anxiety and confusion," online food delivery startup Swiggy has rubbished an anonymous blog post which accused the firm of fabricating its financial numbers and cheating restaurant partners.

An unverified blog post written supposedly by employees and ex-employees of Swiggy, which noted several instances of the startup lying to its restaurant partners about its market share and finances, went viral Wednesday morning.

The post further alleged that Swiggy lied to its investors about its order volumes to ensure their latest round of funding was on track.

"Our January 2017 order volumes were less than December 2016 volumes. Yes, we had a decline of order volumes in January. But we have seen the investor presentations, and they have shaved off the December numbers in the slides in order to show a linear growth curve across all months of our existence," the alleged employees wrote.

Swiggy, which remains one of the top funded food-tech startups, raised $80 million from Naspers, Accel Partners, SAIF Partners and others in May. Earlier today, the company denied all the accusations made in the blog post.

"The recent blog post from an anonymous source is targeted at maligning the reputation of Swiggy as an organization. The article carries inaccurate facts regarding business and order numbers," a spokesperson told Gadgets 360.

"It not only references employee departures from a year and a half back, but also presents details on our partners out of context and with mischievous intent."

In a detailed blog post published Wednesday evening, Sriharsha Majety, chief executive of Swiggy, dismissed every accusation, sharing internal data to support his claims. Starting with the number of daily-orders it saw on its platform, Majety said in December it was 72,112, while in January, the figure stood at 78,417. The company says the numbers have been verified by external, neutral auditors.

In addition, Majety noted that the daily number of orders are continuing to grow, and the company is seeing about four million orders per month.

Responding to the accusation that the startup lied to its restaurant partners, Majety wrote, "We've partnered with restaurants from the start of our journey, and grown tremendously, mutually. [...] We do not lie about our market share or order numbers. We are the clear market leaders and we communicate the same to restaurants and partners to show them the benefits of partnering with us."