BigBasket Raises $150 Million From UAE’s Abraaj Group

Grocery delivery startup BigBasket has raised $150 million (roughly Rs. 1,000 crores) in fresh funding in a round led by UAE’s Abraaj Group, as the company looks to expand its services into smaller cities, the investor said.

Existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners and Helion Advisors along with International Finance Corp and Sands Capital participated in the round, Abraaj said in a statement.

Founded in 2011, the Bengaluru-headquartered startup currently operates in eight metro cities and 10 Tier II cities. The grocery delivery service provides an inventory of over 19,000 products, and averages five million monthly unique visitors and executes over one million orders per month, the company said.

Online grocery sales is a fast-growing segment in India’s e-commerce industry as more consumers log in to the Internet for their purchases, though companies are struggling to raise follow on rounds, and compete against the unit economics of a local kirana shop.

Amazon.com launched a its grocery delivery pilot Amazon Now in Bengaluru in February 2016, following which Flipkart and Ola both shut down their Bengaluru pilots of hyperlocal delivery services.

BigBasket’s rival Grofers raised $120 million (roughly Rs. 800 crores) from Japan’s Softbank last year, but temporarily scaled down its operations during early 2016. Gurgaon-based PepperTap said that it will be shutting down its operations in six Indian cities, which include three metros in February this year.

Written with inputs from Reuters