BigBasket In Talks To Raise $300-400 Mn At A Valuation Of $1.5 Bn

Bengaluru-based online grocery platform BigBasket is reportedly in talks to raise as much as  $300-400 Mn which will boost its valuation to $1.5-2 Bn.

Citing unnamed sources, Livemint has reported that if the startup is able to close its latest funding at $1.5 Bn valuation then it would be also joining the unicorn club.

BigBasket was last speculated to have attain a valuation close to $1 Bn when Alibaba led $300 Mn Series E round in February this year. Till date, BigBasket had raised a total funding of $885.7 Mn in funding over 13 rounds.

The expected round of funding may be raised from at least one new investor and existing investors. A per the media report, the latest funding may be used to expand its presence across the major metros in India.

The company’s future plans also include acquisition of smaller startups that in order to aid its offerings and is also aiming to explore new categories such as beauty products and meat.

This development comes at a time when recent reports claimed that Big Basket rival Grofers has been speculated to raise $140 Mn-$150 Mn (INR 1027 Cr- INR 1100 Cr) from Japanese conglomerate SoftBank’s Vision Group.

Earlier, the two companies were also said to be in merger talks. However, the things didn’t get materialised.

Big Basket which is supported by the Chinese conglomerate Alibaba Group was launched in 2011 by VS Sudhakar, Hari Menon, Vipul Parekh, V S Ramesh and Abhinay Choudhari. It had recorded $31.21 Mn (INR 230 Cr) Gross Monthly Sales as of March 2018.

Earlier reports had stated that Big Basket is aiming to touch $1 Bn gross sales run rate by the end of FY19.

In order to claim the top position in the market, the platform has forayed into micro-delivery space the also recently, acquired 100% stake in milk delivery startups RainCan and Morning Cart along with a controlling stake in smart vending machines startup Kwik24.

The latest funding deal, if successful, may bring a positive growth for Big Basket when it is in competition with not only Grofers but also Flipkart, Amazon India, and Paytm Mall among others, which are also looking to make a presence in the market.

According to a TechSci Research report, the Indian online grocery market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 55% during 2016 – 2021.

[The development was reported by Livemint]

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