India's leading online grocer BigBasket on Friday said it has raised $300 million in a Series E funding round led Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.
"We have raised $300 million in the latest funding round led by Alibaba and other investors," BigBasket said in a statement here.
According to a report by Inc42, documents filed with Registrar of Companies show that, of the round that also show participation of existing investors, Alibaba infused a whopping $145 million (Rs 927 crore) into BigBasket.
Existing investors, Abraaj Group ($44.3 million), Sands Capital ($984,000) and IFC ($5.2 million) added the rest.
"The funds will be directed towards improving our technological, analytical and infrastructural abilities, all of which enable the company to grow," the company's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and co-founder Hari Menon said in the statement.
Currently, BigBasket operates in 30 cities in the country, with its headquarters here in Bengaluru. With around 20,000 products from over 1000 brands, it services over six million customers.
For its future strategy, the company is focusing on increasing its customer base in the cities that it is present in, and expanding to other cities.
Reports suggest that the deal could help BigBasket join the unicorn club by 2020.
Founded in December 2011, BigBasket is an early mover in the only grocery space. It has been aggressively growing over the past year. It launched several private labels and has also forayed into the B2B space, servicing hotels, restaurants and caterers.
The online grocery market in India, which I expected to reach $40 million by FY19, has seen several players entering the market. Flipkart relaunched its grocery segment, Amazon received the government’s nod for food retailing in India. Other players such as Paytm, Quikr also announced plans in this segment. Existing player Grofers also saw a turnaround after it adopted a hybrid model. Most recently there were reports that Grofers is in talks with SoftBank and Tencent to raise a fresh round of funding.
With IANS inputs