BigBasket may raise up to $300-400 million in a fresh round of funding that will likely value the online grocery startup at $1.5-2 billion, Mint reported.
The Alibaba-backed startup is reportedly in talks with at least one new investor and its existing investors for a fresh round of funding, three people aware of the development told the paper.
They added that BigBasket has received a term sheet as part of the latest talks.
If BigBasket closes the latest round at a valuation of $1.5 billion, it would become the eighth Indian start-up to join India’s unicorn club — startups that are valued at $1 billion and above.
Moneycontrol could not independently verify the story.
The startup is planning to use the fresh funds to expand aggressively across major metro cities in the country, buy smaller startups that will fill gaps in its offerings and expand into new categories such as beauty products and meat, the newspaper reported.
BigBasket already sells some meat under its label Fresho but it wants to improve its supply chain as it sees a requirement in meat supply to hotels, restaurants, and caterers.
The online grocery startup was also in talks with smaller rival Grofers for a merger. The merger talks, however, have been put on hold for now, the daily reported.
This round of funding is significant for BigBasket because it wants to gear up for a possible battle with Walmart-owned Flipkart and Amazon for market share in the online grocery space.
Amazon and Flipkart have been investing heavily to boost their respective grocery businesses. In August, Flipkart launched an online groceries service under the moniker Supermart.
The company plans to expand the service to other metros by the end of this year. It will invest $264 million in the service over the next three years.
Following suit, Amazon set-up 15 fulfillment centres in India to assist in the delivery of groceries. Flipkart too has set-up a 1.50 lakh square foot centre in Bengaluru.
In May, Amazon India re-branded its grocery service ‘Amazon Now’ to ‘Prime Now’ and invested in a chill chain for products like fresh fruits, vegetables and dairy to consolidate its position in the segment against rivals BigBasket and Grofers.
Bengaluru-based BigBasket, founded in December 2011 and operated by Supermarket Grocery Supplies, aims to achieve a $1 billion gross sales run rate by March 2019.
