New Delhi:

IPO-bound food delivery platform Swiggy has disclosed that a former junior employee allegedly embezzled more than Rs 33 crore over a period of time from one of its subsidiaries.

As per reports, the Zomato rival initiated a probe with an external team and has filed a legal complaint against the individual whose name was withheld in its annual report for the financial year 2023-24.

“The Group, during the current year, identified embezzlement of funds in one of the subsidiaries by a former junior employee amounting to INR 326.76 Mn over the past periods.,” the annual report mentioned.

Based on review of the facts discovered during the investigation, “the Group has recorded an expense for the aforementioned amount during the year ended March 31, 2024,” the report added.

However, such a large embezzlement from a junior employee raises further questions about corporate governance at the firm.

The company filed its initial public offering (IPO) draft documents through the confidential route In April, and plans to raise up to Rs 3,750 crore (approximately $450 million) through a new issuance and up to Rs 6,664 crore (about $800 million) via an offer-for-sale (OFS) in its $1.25 billion IPO.

Meanwhile, Swiggy posted Rs 2,350 crore in net loss in the last fiscal year (FY24). The online food delivery platform, however, reduced the net loss by 44 per cent, from Rs 4,179 crore in FY23.

The company saw its revenue grow 36 per cent to Rs 11,247 crore in FY24, from Rs 8,265 crore in the previous year. Swiggy’s gross order value (GOV) stood at $4.2 billion, up 26 per cent year-on-year (YoY) as monthly transacting users were around 14.3 million.

According to the company’s FY24 financial report, profitability has sharply improved year-on-year, “as the peak of investments in Instamart is behind us and the business continues to grow rapidly”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A Hyderabad woman recently claimed that a Swiggy Genie delivery partner stole her laptop and then demanded Rs 15,000 to return it. Nishitha Gudipudi, a civil engineer, took to LinkedIn to share the details about the shocking incident. She said that her husband booked Swiggy Genie a few days ago to pick up his backpack from one office to drop at another city’s Madhapur area. The delivery partner picked up the backpack with the laptop inside, however, in between the ride he switched off his phone, the woman said. 

“He basically stole the laptop and intitially we thought okay partially error at our end too to use genie to deliver the laptop but how things took a turn after is what really surprised and scared us,” Ms Gudipudi said. 

The LinkedIn user said that when her husband reached out to customer care, they were unable to identify the delivery agent who was on their booking and ended up sending two pictures asking which one came to pick up the parcel. Ms Gudipudi and her husband suspected that Swiggy’s system allows a person to register using his Aadhar or PAN and then permits anyone to use their credentials. 

The “most of all the scariest part,” according to Ms Gudipudi was when the couple contacted the Swiggy agent via WhatsApp and the delivery executive claimed that his friend used his login. “I’ll check and get back,’ the agent told the couple. However, immediately after the call they received a message from the same number demanding Rs 15,000 to have the laptop delivered through Rapido. 

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In her post, Ms Gudipudi shared screenshots of the WhatsApp conversation between her husband and the person who demanded the money. She also shared pictures of the man registered with Swiggy, the other man who Swiggy accepted to log in through facial recognition. 

Swiggy has not reacted to the incident yet.

Meanwhile, in the comments section, one user wrote, “I regret the situation; however, the Swiggy team should take action and resolve it. Otherwise, the public’s trust, human ethics, and customer satisfaction have all decreased”. 

“That’s horrible and absolutely unacceptable, Nishitha. ‘Middlemen’ companies like Zomato, Swiggy, Ola, Uber etc need to understand that focusing on security is extremely important for them,” commented another. 

“In the hunger for growth, all these ride-hailing and food-delivery companies stopped enforcing KYC norms. I was amazed when a few months ago, one if their hub managers openly threatened me on LinkedIn for posting against the nuisance created by their riders, and the social media team,” wrote a third user.