Milkbasket Raises $5.5 Mn With Plans To Turn Profitable In 2020

Gurugram-headquartered hyperlocal delivery startup Milkbasket has raised $5.5 Mn in fresh funding led by Inflection Point Venture with participation from existing investors— Blume Ventures, Kalaari Capital, Mayfield India, Unilever Ventures and BeeNext. 

Anant Goel, cofounder and CEO, Milkbasket, said that this was the last fundraise for the company on its path to profitability in 2020. “Our Gurugram, Noida and Bengaluru operations are already breaking even with other cities on an accelerated track. These funds will provide a further boost in our efforts to achieve the same and necessary buffers to deal with any eventualities,” Goel added.

Founded in 2015 by Anant Goel, Ashish Goel, Anurag Jain and Yatish Talvadia, Milkbasket caters to household grocery needs. The company says that with advanced and deep technology across the full-stack supply chain from sourcing to last-mile delivery, it serves over 130K households and offers over 9,000 products across fruits & vegetables, dairy, bakery and all other FMCG categories. It is currently operating in Gurugram, Noida, Dwarka, Ghaziabad, Hyderabad and Bengaluru.

It claims to have enabled over 30 Mn orders delivered till date. During the lockdown, the company also launched services like MbBulk and SCO (Senior Citizens Only) helpline across multiple cities to help people sustain the lockdown without venturing out for groceries. 

Vinay Bansal, founder CEO, Inflection Point Ventures, said, “We believe that Milkbasket has a unique customer-centric model and enjoys a very high degree of loyalty from its customers. Milkbasket has a very lean delivery model using the milk-run concept that enables them to run a very efficient and cost-effective supply chain. This will help them become profitable very soon and first among the various competitive players in the market.” 

Inc42 had reported earlier that the filings of Milkbasket for the financial year ending March 31, 2019, show that its losses have ballooned 8.99X reaching INR 9.54 Cr. However, the good part is the company has also increased its income, which has jumped 1.89X reaching INR 84.63 Cr. But the growth in expenses is higher than this, which reached INR 94.18 Cr in FY19, a 2.1X Y-o-Y increase.

The Covid-19 pandemic, which has locked down the country, has come as an opportunity for growth and consolidation for the online grocery delivery segment. Not only customers but players across the several segments have entered the domain to keep the supply chain intact.  Riding on the uptick, cab-hailing service Uber, epharmacy NetMeds, food delivery giant Zomato and digital payments platform Bharatpe have jumped in to facilitate delivery of groceries.

Forrester Research noted that India’s online grocery market could make $3 Bn in sales this year, representing a whopping 76% hike compared to $1.7 Bn last year. The research firm has attributed this growth to the demand of fresh produce and staples during the nation-wide lockdown.

Forrester Research has also elaborated that the additional $1.3 Bn in online grocery sales could also be the biggest driver of the overall ecommerce sales. It also added that the ecommerce segment is expected to grow by 6%, amounting to $35.5 Bn this year. However, compared to last year, the firm would also seek a hike of $2 Bn.