Online grocery platform Bigbasket has raised about $150 million from South Korea’s Mirae Asset Management, UK’s CDC Group, and existing investor Alibaba.
Mirae has pumped in about USD 60 million, while CDC and Alibaba have infused USD 40 million and USD 50 million, respectively.
Early last year Bigbasket had raised $300 million in a fresh funding round led by Chinese e-tailer Alibaba and other investors.
Bigbasket is the largest online grocery supermarket in India. It was launched in 2011, quite about the time when e-commerce was in its nascent stage in the country.
It was founded by Hari Menon, VS Sudhakar, V S Ramesh, Vipul Parekh and Abhinay Choudhari.
Bigbasket was launched at a time when India’s busy workforce in cities was finding it difficult to allocate time to buy groceries and home essentials. Bigbasket gave them the flexibility to place their order anytime and get the things delivered at their preferred time.
It offers groceries and food supplies in various categories such as fruits & vegetables, food grains, oil, masalas, bakery items, beverages, branded foods, personal care products, household supplies, eggs, meat, fish, etc.
According to a TechSci Research report, the Indian online grocery market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 55% during 2016 – 2021.
The tide for online grocery delivery companies including BigBasket seems to have changed as the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic induced lockdown has let Indians discover the convenience of shopping for groceries online.
Industry experts believe that this situation will lead to behavioural changes which will in turn boost orders for online grocery firms.