Bengaluru: Tata Digital said it has acquired a majority stake in online grocery BigBasket, in a deal that pits India’s largest conglomerate against entrenched e-commerce players in the country.
While the digital unit of the salt-to-software group didn’t disclose financial details of the Tata-BigBasket deal, regulatory filings showed that it has acquired around 64% stake in Supermarket Grocery Supplies—the business-to-business entity of the online grocer.
On May 28, ET reported that the deal was approved by BigBasket’s board earlier this week and that Tata Digital has infused primary capital of $200 million in the hyperlocal startup at a post-money valuation of $2 billion. Majority shareholders China’s Alibaba Group and Actis LLP have now exited the Bengaluru-based company.
The deal was cleared by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in late April.
“Grocery is one of the largest components of an individual’s consumption basket in India, and BigBasket, as India’s largest e-grocery player, fits perfectly with our vision of creating a large consumer digital ecosystem,” Pratik Pal, chief executive officer of Tata Digital, said in a statement on Friday. “We are delighted to welcome BigBasket as a part of Tata Digital.”
Hari Menon, BigBasket’s co-founder and CEO, said the company was “extremely excited” about its future as part of Tata Group. “As a part of the Tata ecosystem, we would be able to build stronger consumer-connect and accelerate our journey,” he said in the statement.
According to the Tata Digital statement, BigBasket has in its decade-long existence expanded its presence to more than 25 cities across India. The e-grocer has one of the largest assortments of more than 50,000 SKUs (stock keeping units) and also operates a farm-to-fork supply chain with over 12,000 farmers and several collection centres across India to deliver fresh fruits and vegetables.
To be sure, the Tata-BigBasket deal comes at a time when the group is seeking a bigger play in India’s digital economy. It is in the final stages of acquiring online pharmacy 1mg and eyeing a majority stake in Mukesh Bansal’s health-and-fitness startup Curefit, ET reported on May 27.
Last week, ET reported that BigBasket clocked $1.1 billion in gross sales in a pandemic year and aimed to increase the same to $1.7 billion to $1.8 billion this fiscal.
