How five dotcom survivors built a $950 million e-grocery startup in India

In a country where groceries account for half of the almost $1 trillion retail market, Bigbasket is using knowledge learned the hard way during the dotcom era

Tech startups are typically founded by young entrepreneurs with more passion than experience. This is as true in India as it is in Silicon Valley. Then there’s Bigbasket, whose founders are veterans of the dotcom bust and mostly north of 50. Drawing on their successes and failures, they’ve turned their six-year-old startup into India’s biggest e-grocer and are taking on a host of competitors, including Amazon and brick-and-mortar chains operated by the nation’s biggest conglomerates.

Bangalore-based Bigbasket delivers everyday cooking essentials like ghee (clarified butter), diced coconut and fragrant basmati rice, as well as 18,000 other items from bread to laundry