Mirae-Naver, Alibaba, CDC invest $150 mn in BigBasket

South Korean Asset financial group Mirae-Naver, Chinese e-tail behemoth Alibaba group and British development finance institution CDC on Monday said they have collectively invested $150 million (Rs 1,040 crore) in grocery major BigBasket's firm Supermarket Grocery Supplies Ltd.

"The new funds will be used to finance our growth through penetration into markets with more investment in the first mile, scaling-up of its supply chain and for developing new reseller channels," said the city-based Supermarket in a statement here.

Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund is a joint venture between Seoul-based Mirae Financial Group and Naver Corporation, South Korea's leading internet firm.

Alibaba group, which led the previous Series E round of Supermarket in 2017, participated in this funding round.

"Alibaba aims to enable the growth of local Indian firms like Supermarket that are re-defining segments and consumer behaviour as more users go online across the country," said the statement.

London-based CDC, which has been investing in India over the last three decades, has committed to invest $1.7 billion as an investor in about 300 firms across the country.

The eight-year-old BigBasket serves resellers with operations in 10 metro cities and 15 tier-2 cities across the country.

"We are upbeat on investment opportunities in India, which is a key geography for us, where we continue to identify and partner with market leading companies," said Mirea India head Ashish Dave in the statement.

BigBasket's Founder, V.S. Sudhakar, said the company had a unique opportunity to build one of the largest grocery business in the country.

"We expect the capital raised in this round will enable us to scale our operations and offerings. We are re-engineering our supply chain to allow for faster delivery to resellers and reduce the time from farm to customers," he said.

--IANS

fb/mag/