India’s BigBasket valuation tops US$1 billion

Online grocery delivery firm BigBasket has become the second Indian startup to attain unicorn status – with a valuation of more than US$1 billion – in 2019, with the latest round of funding led by China’s Alibaba.

Earlier this week, Delhivery, an e-commerce-focused logistics start-up, saw its valuation top $2 billion after the SoftBank Vision Fund led a $413-million investment round.

In the latest round of funding, the Bangalore-based BigBasket has raised $150 million. While Alibaba will invest $50 million in this round, South Korea-based Mirae Asset will put in $59.9 million. CDC Group, a development finance group linked to the UK government, is the other prominent investor with $40 million.

The current estimated valuation of BigBasket is about $2.3 billion, which is more than double its last reported valuation of $950 million, Business Standard reports.

After the latest investments, Alibaba will hold a 26.26% stake, while Mirae Asset and CDC Group will own 5.31% and 3.54%, respectively in BigBasket. In February last year, BigBasket had raised $300 million, led by Alibaba.

Founded in 2011, BigBasket is now the largest grocery delivery firm in India with a presence in 32 cities and annual revenue of about 4 billion rupees.

BigBasket is expected to use the fresh capital to go deeper into the online grocery segment and develop in-house brands, as the competition has intensified following the entry of Amazon Pantry and Flipkart’s Supermart.