mumbai, Dec. 11 -- A clutch of investment firms including GIC, Temasek and Nomura have put in a bid to acquire a position in Swiggy's qualified institutional placement (QIP) through which the food delivery platform plans to raise $1.3 billion, or about Rs.10,000 crore, three people familiar with the matter said. "The QIP has already drawn nearly 4.5x demand from top mutual funds including Kotak Mahindra, SBI Mutual Fund, ICICI Mutual Fund, HDFC MF, Nippon India Mutual Fund, Axis MF, and Mirae Asset Mutual Fund," a person familiar with the matter said. "While high quality FIIs (foreign institutional investors) have put in bids, the company is expected to give higher weightage to domestic funds," said a second person, adding the allotment could happen in the next two hours. All three people spoke on the condition of anonymity. Temasek declined comment while others did not immediately respond to Mint's queries. Temasek was one of the earliest backers in Swiggy's rival Zomato hiking its stake in the latter about three years ago. Swiggy plans to use the funds raised towards expanding and operating its quick-commerce fulfilment network, including dark stores and warehouses that power Instamart, enhance its fulfillment footprint, and expand its cloud and technology infrastructure. Instamart, its quick commerce arm which delivers everyday essentials from milk to groceries, saw its revenue double from the year-ago period in the September quarter. But, it added just 40 new dark stores, taking its total to 1,102 across 128 cities. This is much slower than its larger rival, Eternal, which added 272 stores during the September quarter, taking its dark store count to 1,816, and aims to establish 3,000 stores by March 2027, Mint reported in October. Although the number of dark stores for Bengaluru-based Swiggy is less than its Gurugram-based rival, it has an upper hand as each of its dark stores clocks 800-1,000 orders per store a day thanks to its megapods, which are about 4,000+ sq. ft. Swiggy's fundraising plans come as India's instant-commerce sector rapidly expands amid surging demand and intensifying competition. Over a year ago, Eternal which operates Zomato, raised Rs.8,500 crore through a QIP to expand its quick commerce arm, Blinkit. Even unlisted peer Zepto has raised more than a billion dollars in the last 12-18 months....