BigBasket Inches Closer To $150 Mn Fundraise From Alibaba, Mirae, CDC Group

Bengaluru-based hyperlocal startup BigBasket is close to completing its $150 Mn funding round with sizable investments from Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba, South Korean Mirae Asset Global Investments and the UK government-backed CDC Group.

According to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs filing, dated March 27 accessed by Inc42:

• Alibaba Group will pick up 437.5K Series F CCPS in the company for $50 Mn at a value of $114.29 per share
• Mirae Asset will pick up 524.9K Series F CCPS for $59.9 Mn at a value of $114.29 per share. It will also pick up 100 equity shares at a value of $11.43 per share for $1142.86
• CDC will pick up 350K Series F CCPS  in the company for $40 Mn at a value of $114.29 per share

Prior to this round, BigBasket had raised a total of $874.6 Mn across 13 funding rounds from investors such as Alibaba, Helion Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Abraaj Group, LionRock Capital and others.

The company’s last funding round was closed in February 2018 with a massive $300 Mn, led by Chinese conglomerate Alibaba along with the participation of Abraaj Capital, Sands Capital and IFC.

BigBasket was launched in 2011 by VS Sudhakar, Hari Menon, Vipul Parekh, V S Ramesh and Abhinay Choudhari. The company plans to touch $1 Bn gross sales run rate by the end of FY19. It has recorded close to $33 Mn (INR 230 Cr) in gross monthly sales, with an annual exit rate of around $435.8 Mn (INR 3K Cr) in March 2018.

BigBasket has been putting its efforts to create in-house brands such as Fresho for vegetables and idli and dosa batter; Royal and Popular for staples; Tasties, for snacks will help drive growth going forward. This addition helps BigBasket in becoming self-reliant while other players have to depend on kirana stores for their supply of these products.

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

Last year saw BigBasket’s competition growing exponentially, with the foray of big players like Flipkart, Amazon India, and Paytm Mall in the grocery delivery sector.

Also, earlier this month, Gurugram-based online grocery startup Grofers has raised nearly $60 Mn in a fresh Series F funding round from SoftBank Vision Fund (SVF). This is reportedly the first tranche of the larger $120 Mn-$140 Mn funding round that is under works for Grofers.