Bigbasket Raises INR 350 Cr As Competition Rises

India’s largest online food grocery store Bigbasket has raised INR 350 crore from holding company Supermarket Grocery Supplies, according to regulatory documents accessed by business intelligence platform Tofler.

The investment was approved on May 24 this year and the company allotted 3.5 crore equity shares.

The funding is expected to help Bigbasket compete with Amazon, Walmart-owned Flipkart, and Reliance’s JioMart for a share in the online grocery and food market, which is expected to become a USD 790 billion market size by 2024 from USD 603 billion in 2019, according to analysts.

The company recently said that it expects Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) on its platform to grow by 30 per cent to INR 13,000 crore in the current fiscal with a push from its quick commerce business and expansion of presence across the country.

Hari Menon, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Bigbasket, said the company will scale up offline stores from 90 to 695 in a year to reach out to 100 per cent of its customer base. It had posted GMV of around Rs 10,000 crore in 2021-22.

“The company is scaling up the number of stores to reach out to 100 per cent of its customers. It had about 90 stores and it has a plan to scale them up to about 695 stores by the end of the year. This will give us a hundred per cent coverage of all its existing customers. The firm plans to expand its footprint to 70 cities this fiscal year, from about 37 now,” Menon said.

Tata Digital, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Tata Sons, in May last year acquired a majority stake in Supermarket Grocery Supplies. It committed an investment of USD 219 million in Bigbasket, according to the regulatory filings.

Single Use Plastic

On the occasion of World Environment Day, Bigbasket has roll out India’s first packaging-free doorstep delivery of grocery.

Single use plastics used in packaging, especially for fruits and vegetables, is one of the major contributors to environmental damage.

To address this challenge, Bigbasket has eliminated plastic packaging from its fruit and vegetables delivery services. The new service has been unveiled as pilot project and Bigbasket aims to completely remove packaging from its fruits and vegetables delivery pan India by 2023.

“Bigbasket is a brand with multi-dimensional approach towards sustainability. We have been observing how a lot of single-use plastic is used in packaging of fresh foods, and by eliminating it, a significant damage to the environment can be prevented. We have launched packaging-free delivery of fruits and vegetables in selected locations. Going forward, we will gradually increase the coverage to make it pan India. As we grow year-on-year, our focus is on expanding our efforts towards sustainability in as many ways as possible. On World Environment Day, we are extremely thankful to our customers who have supported journey of Bigbasket and our green initiatives,” Seshu Kumar Tirumala, National Head-Buying and Merchandising, Bigbasket was quoted as saying by the media.

Online Grocery Market Share

The India online grocery market size was valued at USD 2.9 billion in 2020 and was expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 37.1 per cent from 2021 to 2028.

The market has gained immense traction over the past years on account of the changing lifestyle of the consumers, growing urbanisation, and the tech-savvy generation who prefers buying products online.

With the growth in disposable incomes and busier lifestyles, people are increasingly seeking out customisable and convenient online platforms for grocery shopping instead of walking down to the neighbourhood vendors. The preference for online delivery of grocery products became more visible following the COVID-19 outbreak. With the social distancing standards, consumers are turning their focus to online grocery shopping, which is not only convenient but is a safer option.