Having previously been in talks with Amazon prior to the company’s purchase of Whole Foods
Markets Inc., India’s largest online grocery store, BigBasket, may be set to receive an investment worth
$200 million from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. The information came from an anonymous source as told to Bloomberg.

BigBasket, which is owned by Innovative Retail Concepts Pvt. Ltd, is based in Bengaluru and is available
to users in over 24 cities throughout India, and works with 1,000 brand companies, despite being
active in a more challenging industry. The company supplies a variety of merchandise from
spices to basic household needs, offering a total of 18,000 products.

If the investment from Alibaba goes through, the funding round for Bigbasket will be brought up
to $280 million dollars with Chinese e-commerce company as the lead investor, the source told
Bloomberg. The purchase would give Alibaba a 25 percent stake in the company.
Abraaj Group, based in Dubai and Sands Capital, are among current investors of Bigbasket.
According to the source, the deal with Alibaba is all but awaiting approval from the Competition
Commission of India.

With Amazon receiving approval from the government to put $500 million into funding food retail
companies, there is growing competition between Amazon, Alibaba and Flipkart Online Services
Pvt., to be the largest online retailer in the country. Previously Alibaba has invested in One97
Communications Ltd., while Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon is planning on putting $5 billion
into the country’s market.

(Picture courtesy: Indiaonlineseller.com)