The Tata Group will buy a 68 per cent stake in online grocery delivery service BigBasket for Rs 9,100-9,200 crore ($1.31 billion), according to reports by CNBC TV18 and ET NOW.
The current largest institutional investor, the China-based Alibaba Group, will reportedly exit, as will the second-largest investor, the Dubai-based Abraaj Group. The Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) nod for the same is awaited, CNBC TV18 reported.
If confirmed, the move would be the latest by the Tata Group towards its plans of launching a “super app” to combine e-commerce, financial and payment services.
BigBasket top management, including co-founder Hari Menon, are likely to stay on for three to four years, according to the ET NOW report. Tata Group and BigBasket said they had no comments on the matter.
Tata's potential investment, which has been on the charts for a while, would pit Tata against first-mover Jio (whose JioMart has been rolled out in over 200 cities) and add to the competitiveness of the online grocery market.
In March 2019, BigBasket had raised $150 million from Mirae, Alibaba and CDC Group, which placed the Bengaluru-based company in the unicorn club (companies with valuation of $1 billion and above).
The company had then said it planned to utilise the proceeds of this fundraising to further penetrate into existing markets with more investments in the first mile, scaling-up of its supply chain and for developing new reseller channels.
Founded in 2011, BigBasket operates in 25 Indian cities. It competes with SoftBank-backed Grofers as well as Amazon India and Flipkart.
With inputs from PTI
