In its plan to strengthen the company's presence in the e-commerce market in India, Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is planning to acquire online furniture brand Urban Ladder and milk delivery platform Miklkbasket.
RIL talks with Urban Ladder are at an advanced stage, The Times of India reported. If the talks move to the final stage, Reliance Industries could peg the deal at around $30 million. The conglomerate could also further pump in more money into the business to expand its presence.
Similarly, Milkbasket, which was earlier in discussions with Amazon and Bigbasket, is also negotiating its valuation and talks with RIL are at advanced stage, the report said.
Milkbasket operates across Gurugram, Noida, Dwarka, Ghaziabad, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, and serves around 1.30 lakh households. It deals with over 9,000 products across different categories, including fruits, vegetables, FMCG, and dairy.
As the coronavirus pandemic hit the country and more consumers preferred buying daily needs products online, Milkbasket's daily average orders increased by about 2.5 times and the company is adding up to 1,00 sign-ups every day, the daily reported.
Besides, Mukesh Ambani's oil-to-retail behemoth is also in talks to take over e-pharmacy startup Netmeds and lingerie platform Zivame.
Reports also suggest Chinese tech giant ByteDance, which runs popular apps like TikTok, is also in early-stage talks with Reliance Industries to financially back its India business. The app was banned in India on June 29 over national security and data privacy concerns.
Also read: Mukesh Ambani's RIL in talks with parent ByteDance to acquire TikTok in India
Besides, RIL is reportedly closing in on a mega deal with Kishore Biyani-led Future Group to enhance its physical store presence and to support the operation of e-commerce venture JioMart. Future Group's brands, logistics and warehousing facilities will expand the network size of Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd.
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