Tata group eyes online grocery market; plans tie-up with BigBasket

The Tata group wants to join the race to capture the thriving online grocery market, which since the pandemic has seen an explosive growth and entry of the likes of Reliance. To make a grand entry into the segment, Tata Group wants to partner with BigBasket, one of India's unicorns. For starters, the Tata group is planning to join the fundraising of Alibaba-backed BigBasket as it plans to raise $200 million from investors.

Apart from Tata, Singapore's Temasek Holdings and US-based Generation Investment Management will also take part in the fundraising. The latest fundraising deal is likely to value the Bengaluru-based start-up at $2 billion, which is 40 per cent premium to its last fundraise, LiveMint reported citing sources. The deal is supposed to be a primary capital, which BigBasket will use to expand its footprints and boost growth.

BigBasket has big plans when it comes to expanding its business in India. If reports are to be believed, the start-up is planning launch initial public offering in the next two years. Most likely, this funding round is going to be last before the formal IPO launch.

The start-up has appointed Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to help raise funds. Notably, the Tata group has a huge presence in large offline as well as FMCG retail stores. The company's online retail venture, Tata CLiQ, which started in 2016 is far behind than top three rivals Reliance Retail, Amazon and Flipkart.

The Tata group has already announced its plans to launch an e-commerce app to take on Amazon and RIL in the country's booming e-commerce sector. With this app, the group seeks to bring together its different consumer services for the first time. The app is expected to be launched in India in December or January. The app aims to provide its customers with a range of products and services offered by different platforms of Tata Group, including shopping app Tata CLiQ, grocery e-store StarQuik and online electronics platform Croma.

Even as other heavyweights such as RIL have aggressively pushed for technology in their businesses, Tata Group has largely remained muted in its consumer internet offerings. Since April 2020, billionaire Mukesh Ambani led RIL has raised Rs 152,056 crore by selling 32.97 per cent equity stake in Jio Platforms.

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