bigbasket secures $300 mn funding from Alibaba

In a major move to fuel growth, online supermarket bigbasket raised USD 300 million in a fresh funding round led by Chinese e-tailer Alibaba and other investors.

The funds will be used as investment to build farmer networks, expand deeper into existing cities, and become the most preferred employer for blue-collar jobs.

Furthermore, the company's brand ambassador since the last two years, Shahrukh Khan, has also extended his agreement with bigbasket for the third year, another move geared towards its increasing popularity as the largest grocery e-tailer.

"The funds will be directed towards bettering our technological, analytical, and infrastructural prowess, all of which will enable the company to move up the curve. bigbasket is currently partnering with about 1800 farmers throughout the country and aims to become the 'most preferred partner' for up to 3000 of them," said Hari Menon, CEO and co-founder, bigbasket.

The company currently operates in 30 cities clocking Rs. 200 crore in terms of monthly run-rate. This is expected to increase to Rs. 300 crore in August and Rs. 500 crore in March 2019.

In addition to partnering with farmers and gaining a larger customer base, the third big priority for the company is to become a leading employer for blue collar workers in the country, whose current employee strength is 16,000.

bigbasket recently crossed the 8 million customers mark and continues to expand its customer base. It has also strengthened its B2B business by expanding to the Hotels, Restaurants, and Caterers segment and partnering with Kirana stores in an effort to transform them into technology-enabled modern retail stores.

bigbasket closed the previous fiscal year (2016-17) with Rs 1,410 crore in revenue. The company has already broken even in two key markets- Bengaluru and Hyderabad, and is expected to break even in Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Chennai in the next three months.