Bengaluru, March 22 (IANS) Global private equity investment firm Abraaj Group on Tuesday led a $150 million fundraising drive by Indian E-commerce grocery startup BigBasket.
"We are excited about the investment opportunities in India, a key geography for us, where we continue to identify and partner with market leading companies," Abraaj Group Asia head Omar Lodhi in a statement.
"Abraaj will leverage its strong experience in the consumer sector to enable BigBasket to further enhance its strong domestic position," he added.
In addition to the participation of existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Helion Advisors, Zodius Capital and Ascent Capital in the BigBasket's latest fundraising, new investors, World Bank subsidiary International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Sands Capital also marked their entry.
"We intend to increase the reach of our just-launched one-hour express delivery service and also launch our marketplace for specialty stores in the coming months," said BigBasker co-founder V.S. Sudhakar about the utilisation of the raised funds.
"The proceeds of this round of fundraising will be used to finance BigBasket's growth through further penetration into existing markets, expansion into Tier II cities across India, scaling-up of its recently launched express delivery and specialty store business that caters to top-up and emergency purchases, and increasing the product range offered to customers," he added.
Founded in 2011, the online grocery startup currently operates in eight metro and 10 tier two cities retailing over 19,000 products from a range of 1,000 brands which include fruits, vegetables, meat, beverages and personalAcare products.
For Abraaj Group, this is the third investment in E-commerce, after acquiring stakes in Turkish online retailer Hepsiburada and Dubai-based cab hailing app Careem.
After entering India in 2006, this is its latest move is the here, following investment in Hyderabad based Care Hospitals and a gigawatt scale renewable energy platform partnership with Aditya Birla Group.
