The online grocery firm currently operates in more than 25 cities across the country
BigBasket’s annual revenue reached $1bn mark last year. (Credit: Free-Photos from Pixabay)
Tata Digital, a subsidiary of Tata Sons, has bought a majority stake in Indian online grocery firm BigBasket for an undisclosed sum.
Founded in 2011 in Bangalore, the e-grocery company currently has operations in more than 25 cities across the country.
BigBasket claims to offer one of the largest assortments with more than 50,000 stock-keeping unit (SKUs) in the e-grocery space.
In addition, the company operates a farm-to-fork supply chain with over 12,000 farmers and several collection centres in the country.
According to media reports, the transaction is worth about INR95bn ($1.3bn) and will include acquiring the stake held by China’s Alibaba.
Tata Digital CEO Pratik Pal said: “Grocery is one of the largest components of an individual’s consumption basket in India, and BigBasket is India’s largest e-grocery player, fits in perfectly with our vision of creating a large consumer digital ecosystem. We are delighted to welcome BigBasket as a part of the Tata Digital.”
With nearly 15 million customer orders per month, BigBasket’s annual revenue reached the $1bn mark last year.
The acquisition is part of the Tata group’s efforts to build a digital consumer ecosystem to address consumer requirements across categories in a unified manner.
The group sees online food and grocery as a key part of the ecosystem.
BigBasket CEO Hari Menon said: “We are extremely excited about our future as a part of Tata group. As a part of the Tata ecosystem, we would be able to build stronger consumer connect and accelerate our journey.”
Earlier this year, Tata Digital received approval from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to acquire up to a 64.3% stake in BigBasket.
The acquisition comes in the wake of rapid growth witnessed by e-grocery in the consumer e-commerce space in India, driven by rising consumption and digital penetration.
Also, the growth has been further accelerated by the current pandemic, Tata Digital said.