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India has a new unicorn after BigBasket, A start-up that delivers groceries and perishable goods across the country has raised $ 150 million to fight its rivals, Walmart. Flipkart, Amazon and Swiggy hyperlocal startups and Dunzo.
The new round of financing – Series F – was led by the Mirae Asset-Naver Growth Fund, of the British group CDC, and Alibaba, said BigBasket on Monday. The closing of the round officially helped the seven-year-old startup to surpass the valuation of one billion dollars, said co-founder, Vipul Parekh, marketing and finance manager for the company, at TechCrunch . Chinese giant Alibaba, who also led BigBasket 's E Series last year, is the company' s biggest investor with a stake of about 30%, said one familiar with the record.
The company, which offers more than 20,000 products of 1,000 brands in more than two dozen cities, will deploy this new capital to expand its supply chain network, adding more cold storage centers and more. distribution to serve customers faster, said Parekh. The company also plans to add about 3,000 vending machines offering daily consumer items such as vegetables, snacks, cold drinks in residential apartments and offices from here next month, has -he adds.
The $ 150 million injection into BigBasket, which raised $ 300 million last year, comes at a time when both Walmart Flipkarts and Amazon develop more and more their grocery stores in India.
Amazon Retail India, which operates Amazon Pantry and Prime Now services and is present in more than 100 cities, plans to expand its operations in India. The chair of the Flipkart group, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, said in an interview with Economic time Last month, the e-commerce giant could soon drive a fresh produce company. Last week, Flipkart was in talks to acquire the Namdhari's Fresh grocery chain.
Parekh has largely brushed off the challenge that his company is facing from Flipkart and Amazon at this point, claiming that "it's a very important market and what it's all about. is unlikely to be dominated by a single company for the simple reason of its complex nature. " Flipkart and Amazon could possibly become serious about this space, but until now, their play with the grocery store is primarily an additional checkpoint of differentiation, he said.
"To succeed in this sector, it is necessary to be able to create and manage a very complex supply chain in several categories such as vegetables, meat, cosmetics and so on. We have focused on strengthening the supply chain and on the possibility of providing a very wide assortment of products to consumers, "he added. He added that today BigBasket offers the most complete catalog and the fastest delivery among its competitors.
In addition, BigBasket, which is increasingly developing its subscription business for the supply of milk and other foods for daily consumption, is also getting closer to its financial situation. Parekh said BigBasket hoped to become operationally profitable in six to eight months. "The idea is that business in and of itself does not consume money. If we use liquidity, it will be to invest in new businesses or to develop existing businesses, "he said.
The Indian retail market, valued at more than $ 900 billion, is attracting more and more attention from venture capital funds. Since 2014, online retailers alone have participated in more than 163 fundraisers, for a total of over $ 1.38 billion, Tracxn Analysis Company told TechCrunch. More than 882 players are operational on the market, the firm said.
The challenge for BigBasket remains to fight a growing army of rivals, including hyperlocal delivery startups such as Grofers, who raised $ 60 million earlier this year, Swiggy, unicorn, and Dunzo, backed by Google, which is becoming more and more a verb in urban Indian cities.
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