Chinese E-commerce giants Alibaba had joined its child firm Paytm in order to pick up a stake in Bangalore-based online grocer BigBasket. According to reports, Alibaba and Paytm were about to invest $200 Mn for a substantial stake.
Alibaba owns over 50% stake in Paytm Mall and has been focussing on investments in grocery and physical retail investments across the globe.
The report also said BigBasket is seeking a pre-money valuation of around $550 million while Alibaba, along with Paytm Mall, is looking to invest $200 million in BigBasket at a valuation of nearly $900 million posts the investment. The due diligence for the deal has already started.
Apart from this investment, BigBasket has raised Rs.45 Crores in venture debt financing from Trifecta Capital to meet capital expenditure requirements, in March ending.
Meanwhile, Fosun’s venture capital arm Kinzon Capital is in discussions with BigBasket for co-investment in the ongoing funding round with a cheque of $20-30 million. “It is for the founders to decide who they would like to go with,” ET quoted sources as saying.
BigBasket founder Hari Menon said the report is “completely untrue.” Alibaba and Temasek did not respond to queries from VCCircle. Fosun dint replied to any emails though.
Apart from Alibaba, Amazon is also concentrating on the online grocery market in India. The company is likely to begin directly selling groceries and other food products online after recently securing the government’s approval for its proposed $500-million foreign direct investment in the business. Read ,more about Indian Startup Ecosystem.
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