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Online grocery shopping is fast gaining popularity among the Indians. According to a Redseer report, India's online grocery retail market is all set to touch $10.5 billion by 2023.
A company that holds a huge share in this fast growing market is BigBasket. Founded in 2011, by dotcom bubble survivors - V.S. Sudhakar, Hari Menon, V.S. Ramesh, Vipul Parekh and Abhinay Choudhari, Supermarket Grocery Supplies Pvt. Ltd., trading as BigBasket, is a household name soon after it came to being.
Headquartered in Bengaluru, BigBasket is currently known as India's largest online grocer that receives over 150,000 orders per day.
With the recent deal, Tata Group becomes the owner of BigBasket by acquiring a majority stake of 64% in the company. BigBasket's valuation rockets to around $1.85 billion as of May 2021.
Read About BigBasket Company Profile, Story, Founders, Competitors, Business Model, Revenue, Funding, Acquisitions and more.
BigBasket Company Details
| Startup Name | BigBasket |
|---|---|
| Headquarter | Bangalore |
| Founders | V.S. Sudhakar, Hari Menon, V.S. Ramesh, Vipul Parekh & Abhinay Choudhari |
| Industry | E-commerce, Grocery, Grocery Delivery |
| Founded | October 2011 |
| Revenue | Rs 509.68K (FY20) |
| Total Funding | $1.1 Billion |
| Valuation | $2 Billion+ |
| Parent Organization | Tata Digital Limited |
| Website | bigbasket.com |
The Rise of BigBasket
About BigBasket
BigBasket - Founder /Owner/ CEO
BigBasket History - How BigBasket Started
BigBasket - User Acquisition
BigBasket - Revenue Model / Business Model
BigBasket - Startup Challenges
BigBasket - Competitors
BigBasket - Funding and Investors
BigBasket - Acquisitions
BigBasket - Growth / Revenue
BigBasket - Future Plans
BigBasket - FAQs
Rishabh Rathi
BigBasket - Latest News
October 28, 2021 - BigBasket opens its Fresho, which is launched as the first physical store of the company.
October 4, 2021 - BigBasket is working on BBNow, which will be launching as a quick commerce product of the brand, and will focus on quick grocery delivery.
August 7, 2021 - BigBasket co-founder, Abhinay Choudhari quietly exits the company on August 5, 2021, to continue with his entrepreneurial journey.
May 28, 2021 - Tata Sons has acquired a majority stake in BigBasket, putting the Indian conglomerate in a direct race with e-commerce players Amazon, Walmart, Flipkart and Reliance Industries. The stake was bought by Tata Digital Limited, a unit of Tata Sons. India's antitrust body had in March approved the acquisition of up to a 64.3% stake in BigBasket by Tata Digital.
Commission approves acquisition of Avana Logistek, Transworld Feeders and Transworld Feeders FZCO by Unifeeder pic.twitter.com/fb5lctA93K
— CCI (@CCI_India) June 3, 2021
The Rise of BigBasket
About BigBasket
BigBasket is into delivering everyday cooking essentials like ghee (clarified butter), diced coconut, fragrant basmati rice, amounting to a total of over 40,000 items ranging from bread to laundry detergents for their customers to shop from and gets them delivered at their doorstep. Their target motive is to enable the ease of grocery shopping online to avoid traffic and the drudgery of supermarket visits.
To explore new opportunities, the company has also launched 3 new businesses BB Daily, BB Instant and BB Beauty.
BB Daily is a subscription based service that allows customers to order milk and fresh groceries. Customers has to place the order before 10 PM, and get the goods delivered with 5AM - 7AM the next day.
BB Instant is BigBasket's unmanned vending machines that are mostly available in corporate offices, tech parks, and apartment buildings in Tier I cities.
While BB Beauty, that allows the consumers to choose from a wide range of beauty and personal care products and order online.
BigBasket has recently launched its first physical store, "Fresho" in Bangalore, in the last week of October 2021, as confirmed via an internal company email. The mentioned store has been open to the customers of Bangalore's Basaveshwar Nagar since October 25, 2021, according to BigBasket co-founder VS Sudhakar, who informed the same to all the employees of the company.
While writing about Fresho in his email, Sudhakar described the opening of the store, which is currently operational from 8 in the morning to 9 in the night, as an “extremely key, strategic initiative.”
BigBasket - Founder /Owner/ CEO
BigBasket was founded by V.S. Sudhakar, Hari Menon, V.S. Ramesh, Vipul Parekh and Abhinay Choudhari in 2011. Prior to BigBasket, the founders also founded Fabmart.com, an online platform that sold books, toys, and groceries in the year 1999. Fabmart was sold to a grocery chain in 2006.
BigBasket CEO Hari Menon comes with a vast experience in diverse fields. Prior to Big Basket Mr Menon was the CEO of Indiaskills, the Vocational Education joint venture of Manipal Group with City & Guilds, UK. An alumni of BITS Pilani, Hari Menon also worked as the Country Head at Planetasia, one of India’s first Internet services businesses. Hari also held top positions with IT majors like Wipro Infotech.
BigBasket co-founder V S Sudhakar was the CEO of Planetasia. He has a vast experience of working in the IT sector.
V.S. Ramesh is the Head of Logistics & Supply Chain at BigBasket. An Electronics Engineering graduate from Karnataka University, V.S. Ramesh has over 21 years of experience in the Indian Navy handling Operations and Logistics.
Vipul Parekh is the Head of Finance & Marketing at BigBasket. Vipul is an alumni of IIM Bangalore, and worked with Peepul Capital, a leading Private Equity Fund as an investment Director. He also worked as a Business Development Head in the Wipro Infotech Group.
Abhinay Choudhari is the Head of New Initiatives at BigBasket. Abhinay is an IIM Ahmedabad alumnus. Besides working with leading IT companies like iGATE & Infosys, Abhinay also founded Stylecountry.com, one of India's first online fashion retail stores. Stylecountry.com had to be closed down as it did not turn out to be profitable.
Abhinay Choudhari takes a silent exit from BigBasket on August 5, 2021. Soon after Tata acquired BigBasket in May 2021, Abhinay decided not to continue working in the same firm, which he finally managed to do in August. As a parting note to his employees, Choudhari has mentioned that he left BigBasket because only to build another company from scratch due to "the start-up itch" that has been growing in him after nine years. Choudhari hinted to “solve another equally painful chore for many Indian households” in the form of the new business that he will found. Next, he will be looking forward to an online laundry business, as per reports.
BigBasket History - How BigBasket Started
All of this began when the BigBasket founders decided to exploit the experience they got post the massive failure of the dot com bubble. Hence, they decided to create a unique website that was never done before. All the founders of Big Basket had relevant and recent experience of the e-commerce when they had created Fabmart.com.
Fabmart.com was an online platform that sold books, toys, and groceries in the year 1999. Back then, only within a few months, they had realized that not just our country but the whole world was not ready to take this buzz of digitization. In the year 2006, Fabmart was merged with a brick and mortar grocery chain and the founders ended up selling their startup for a lump sum amount.
Then came the golden year of 2011, when the team reunited and started re-evaluating the idea of again coming up with something new and exciting. Despite all the criticism they had received back in 1999, they stood very strong on the fact that the time to do something that’d put them on the map was then. In 2011, the smartphone market was booming and anything and everything was available except groceries, of course. And that, right there was their Eureka moment.
BigBasket used to fulfil its orders by purchasing products from Metro cash and Carry stores, prior to setting up its first warehouse.
"We had people in the Metro stores, literally operating that as our warehouse" says Hari Menon, Co-founder & CEO of BigBasket.
BigBasket - User Acquisition
BigBasket's mobile app is currently accessed by over 6 million customers across the country, being operational in 26 cities in India.
An interesting strategy that BigBasket follows to attract customers is that, the company keeps into account the varied needs and different shopping habits of its customers belonging to different cities. The amount of attention the founders paid to little details put them in a competitively better position.
The team did their planning city-wise. They increased the leafy greens numbers in Mumbai, supplied a special kind of rice (called Sona Masoori) in Bangalore and went as far as providing eight different kinds of eggplants to picky customers. All in all, the company ensured their quality was nothing short of perfection.
Timely delivery is the essence of online shopping hence the team put a focused approach to this. They devised a model of customized software that automatically guides drivers to their destinations and helps the company achieve a near-perfect on-time rate. Late deliveries earn customers a 10% discount. Missing items are refunded on a cost that is 50% of whatever the item cost is.
BigBasket - Revenue Model / Business Model
BigBasket’s private label business is driven by lower prices and higher margins. Roughly 35% of the revenue comes from private labels. The aim here is to fill the gap in distinct categories like organic food, high-end consumer products, to name a few. Also, the company offers a lower price point for staples and fruits and vegetables. They also provides idli/dosa batter on their online platform which is very rare and does not have a lot of competition.
Moreover, on the B2B side, BigBasket serves its private-label to about a thousand Kirana stores, huge corporates, and HoReCa (hotels, restaurants, cafes). Regarding Big Basket's Business Model, Big Basket follows both 'inventory model' and ‘hyper-local model’.
Under the inventory model, the company buys products from leading suppliers like P&G, HUL, mills, farmers, etc., store the products in warehouses, and supplies the same to the customers on order. While in case of perishable goods, they have tie ups with local farmers and suppliers from whom they procure the goods as per order and supply the same to the customers.
Under the 'hyper-local model', BigBasket has tie-up with 2000+ grocery stores across India to deliver products within one hour from the neighborhood.
BigBasket is planning to launch its own quick commerce product named BBNow, which will be tentatively released by February 2022. The new qCommerce product will aim to deliver grocery products to the customers in 18-20 minutes within hyperlocal geography.
BBNow will be featured on Tata's upcoming superapp, TataNeu along with several other products of the brand including 1MG, Curefit, and more. The app is still in its development stage and though it will be designed to compete with Dunzo, Grofers, and Swiggy, being a rival in the same space, it will be integrated into the BigBasket platform and not be a spin-off.
‘BBNow’ is estimated to stock up the best-selling essentials, which add to around 2,000 stock keeping units (SKUs). The app will utilize BigBasket’s existing dark stores network that is currently thriving across metropolitan cities, a source close to the company stated.
With the opening of its physical store, Fresho, BigBasket is also a step ahead in physical grocery space, which is soon expected to be revenue generator for the company.
BigBasket - Startup Challenges
One of the main challenges of any startup in India is getting the customers to try the service first since the resistance level is really high. This is followed by retaining these consumers despite all the other factors in the market like competitors, local vendors, and buying habits.
Also, since it was one of a kind startup dealing with groceries, which was never the case before, it took a while for the consumers to place trust in a brand like that and start using their services.
Shubham Kumar
BigBasket - Competitors
Despite growing at an increasing rate, BigBasket faces cut-throat competition in the market. Major competitors are startups like LocalBanya, Sequoia-backed PepperTap and SoftBank funded Grofers. Though these players are acquiring strong market standing with the time, the company tends to stand fit and fine and win the market with its large and ever-increasing consumer base.
BigBasket - Funding and Investors
To date, BigBasket has raised a total of $1.1B in funding over 16 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Apr 15, 2020 from a Debt Financing round.
Bigbasket has recorded gross sales worth $1.1 billion( INR 8000 crore) in financial yr 2021. It reports 80% growth from previous year and is expected to keep growing this way.
Recently, Commission of India approved Tata Digital's acquisition of BigBasket. Tata Group is believed to have acquired 64.3% stake in the grocery delivery unicorn BigBasket. The deal is estimated to be of $1.2 Billion, giving BigBasket a post-money valuation of over $2 Billion.
Here is the details of the funding raised by Big Basket till date -
| Date | Stage | Amount | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 2012 | Series A | $10 Million | Ascent Capital |
| April 2014 | Bridge Round | $3 Million | Singapore-based private investor |
| September 2014 | Series B | $33 Million | Helion Venture Partners |
| August 2015 | Series C | $50 Million | Bessemer Venture Partners |
| March 2016 | Series D | $150 Million | Abraaj Group |
| March 2017 | Debt Financing | $6.9 Million | Trifecta Capital Advisors |
| September 2017 | Series E | $280 Million | Alibaba Group, Paytm Mall |
| October 1, 2017 | Venture Round | $5 Million | Bessemer Venture Partners |
| October 10, 2017 | Debt Financing | $838.1K | Trifecta Capital Advisors |
| October 25, 2017 | Venture Round | $4.3 Million | Helion Ventures Partners |
| February 2018 | Series E | $300 Million | Alibaba Group |
| January 2019 | Venture Round | - | Growth Story |
| May 2019 | Series F | $150 Million | Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund |
| July 2019 | Debt Financing | $14 Million | Trifecta Capital |
| April 9, 2020 | Venture Round | $60 Million | Alibaba Group |
| April 15, 2020 | Debt Financing | $51.8 Million | Alibaba Group |
BigBasket - Acquisitions
Big Basket has made 5 acquisitions till date. Their most recent acquisition was hyper-local delivery platform - DailyNinja on Mar 24, 2020.
In June 2015, the company acquired 'Delyver' , an online platform that connects offline retailers with customers in a neighborhood. In October 2018, Big Basket acquired 'Raincan' a subscription based service provider for morning and breakfast essentials, headquartered in Pune.
In October 2018 itself, Big Basket also acquired 'KWIK24' a company that manufactures and designs smart vending machines. On October 19, 2018, Big Basket announced acquisition of Bangalore based startup 'Morning Cart' . Morning Cart is a daily essential ordering platform.
Here is the details of Acquisitions by BigBasket -
| Acquired | Date |
|---|---|
| Delyver | June 12, 2015 |
| Raincan | October 18, 2018 |
| KWIK24 | October 19, 2018 |
| Morning Cart | October 19, 2018 |
| DailyNinja | March 24, 2020 |
Shubham Kumar
BigBasket - Growth / Revenue
BigBasket's expenses rose from Rs 3,365 crore in FY19 to Rs 4,411 crore in FY20. BigBasket has reported a 36% growth in revenue to Rs 3,818 crore for the year ended March 31, 2020
- Aggressively present in over 26 cities of India
- Serving to 125 million customers all around the country
- Endorsed by the most celebrated celebrity of Bollywood - Shah Rukh Khan
- Aims to double sales each year to hit $2 billion by 2021
- Bigbasket has generated Rs 3,200 crore in revenue in FY19.
- Partnered with the Chinese brand - Alibaba
BigBasket - Future Plans
BigBasket has strong plans of retaining its post as the largest grocery delivery platform in India. So the plan is to set up warehouses in all the 26 operating cities of India to bring down the delivery time to 3 hours.
By 2022, the plan is to grow to 60,000 SKUs and double the farmer base to 5,000. Further, the plan also includes expanding BigBasket’s private label range by using Alibaba’s muscle to source and import a range of merchandise to six times that of large-format supermarkets.
BigBasket - FAQs
Which is BigBasket origin country?
Big basket was originated in India.
Is BigBasket a Chinese company?
BigBasket is an Indian company but has Chinese investors like Alibaba Group and TR Capital. Online grocery retailer BigBasket has so far received greater than $250 million from Chinese companies. It recently received funding of close to $50 million from Alibaba.
Who is owner/founder of BigBasket?
BigBasket was founded by V.S. Sudhakar, Hari Menon, V.S. Ramesh, Vipul Parekh and Abhinay Choudhari.
Does BigBasket have offline stores?
No, it is a purely internet based company and do not have any brick and mortar stores.
What is Bigbasket Wallet?
The Bigbasket Wallet is a pre-paid credit account that is associated with your Bigbasket account. This prepaid account allows you to pay a lump sum amount once to Bigbasket and then shop multiple times without having to pay each time.
Author: Chayanika Goswami
Source : https://startuptalky.com/big-basket/
Date : 2021-10-30T07:02:00.000Z
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing
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