Shares of Swiggy jumped 6% to Rs 440 on Wednesday as the food delivery and fast commerce startup wrapped up India business. second largest IPO this year, in a closely watched debut that puts it in direct comparison with what analysts have long considered the benchmark Indian internet stock: Zomato.

The listing of the 10-year-old Bangalore-based company marks a milestone for India’s startup ecosystem, where several companies are considering public offerings of a similar scale over the next 24 months. This also marks a major liquidity event for Swiggy’s backers, including Prosus, whose paper returns have already reached $2 billion, as well as SoftBank and Accel. Some 5,000 employees could collectively reap about $1 billion in wealth.

As IPO approaches, Swiggy set its valuation at $11.3 billiona particularly conservative figure given rival Zomato’s recent market capitalization of $29 billion. In an interview, Sriharsha Majety, co-founder and chief executive officer of Swiggy, said the company wanted to make the offering attractive to new investors. Zomato shares are also down 8% this month as foreign institutional investors continue to dump billions of Indian shares. Swiggy’s market capitalization jumped to $11.6 billion on Wednesday.

“One of the things that excites me the most is that Swiggy itself is happening at an incredible time,” he said in a speech on Wednesday. “When we look at the next two decades, I think this is the next two decades of India. There is so much economic growth ahead of us. Indian pride is at an all-time high.

Swiggy is entering the public markets at a pivotal time in India’s digital commerce landscape. Although it has established itself as the second largest food delivery platform in India with 14 million monthly active users, it lags behind market leader Zomato on key metrics. Its $3.3 billion annualized gross order value in food delivery lags Zomato’s by about 25%, according to a Macquarie study.

The gap is widening further in fast commerce – the fast delivery segment promising grocery deliveries within 10 minutes. Swiggy’s Instamart service, operating through a network of more than 550 dark stores, has 5.2 million monthly users, compared to 7.6 million for Zomato’s Blinkit. What’s more worrying for potential investors is that even though Blinkit has broken even on adjusted EBITDA, Instamart remains loss-making, even at the contribution margin level.

“We believe each of Swiggy’s business segments deserves a lower target valuation multiple than Zomato due to poor execution in the past, which has led to a widening market share gap,” JMFinancial analysts said Wednesday.

However, the opportunities ahead are considerable. Morgan Stanley estimates that India’s fast commerce market could reach $42 billion by 2030, which would account for over 18% of the country’s total e-commerce market. The sector has already seen a staggering 77% annual growth since the start of the pandemic, far outpacing the 14% growth of traditional retail.

JPMorgan reports that fast commerce platforms have already captured 56% of online grocery deliveries from traditional e-commerce players.

However, competitive pressures are intensifying. Traditional retail giants like Flipkart and Reliance’s JioMart are launching their own fast delivery services. Questions remain about the viability of the rapid commerce model beyond major urban centers, given its reliance on dense networks of small warehouses.