Robert Jones 
The Indian startup circuit has been growing at a remarkable rate over the past half a decade or so and one of the companies that came up at an exceptional pace over the past few years is the grocery start-up BigBasket. In a fresh development, BigBasket became the latest Indian startup to be valued at over $1 billion after it secured a $150 million funding from Alibaba, CDC Group and Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund as part of its Series F capital raise. The company is now officially a ‘unicorn’ and needless to say; it is all set to be one of the most important consumer brands in the country over the next few years, as it tries to get more people to buy groceries online.
BigBasket is involved in the delivery of groceries, including perishable items like fruits, vegetables, fish and meat among others and the company are going to use these funds not only expand into new areas in India, but also improve their supply chain and welcome new vendors on to the platform. V S Sudhakar, who is one of the co-founders of the company said as much. He said,
“We have a unique opportunity to build one of the largest grocery businesses in the country in the country, and we expect the capital raised in this round to continue to enable us to do just that.”
As far as South Korea based Mirae Asset Financial Group is concerned, this is their biggest bet in India so far, although it is important to keep in mind that the company has made otherwise large moves into other sectors in the country. The chief of Mirae Asset Global Investments in India, Ashish Dave said,
“We firmly believe the Big Basket brand will continue to define this segment (grocery) as a category leader.”
While the company remains one of the biggest online grocery platforms, it has made entry into newer segments at a consistent pace, and many experts in India believe that this is a sector that is going to explode in the next few years. In addition to that, it is necessary to keep in mind that more and more people are going to get online in India within the next few years, as date prices collapse and companies like BigBasket are going to reap the benefits of that explosion.