Big Basket says it complies with FDI norms

Hari Menon, co-founder and ceo of BigBasket, the online grocery store on Thursday welcomed the government's new norms for foreign direct investment in online marketplaces and said his business was compliant with the law of land including the new norms.

"The norms are progressive which is important for development of online commerce in India," said Menon. "We are fully complaint with our FDI norms"

On Thursday, Economic Times quoted Kishore Biyani, the founder of Future Group as saying that BigBasket should be shut under new norms as it did not have any sellers but was directly selling goods to consumers. Menon did not comment on Biyani's charges.

Private equity backed Big Basket last week raised $150 million from investors such as the Abraaj Group, venture capital firm Sands Capital Management Llc and International Finance Corp. (IFC). The Bengaluru-based online grocery store had raised $ 61 million prior to the latest funding.

The government announced norms for 100 per cent FDI in online marketplaces that prohibited discounts and specified that no vendor should have over 25 per cent sales.