Big Basket Startup – Everything About India’s Biggest Online Grocery Store

Big Basket - The Story & Inspiration Behind Hari Menon’s Visionary Idea

Big Basket is an Indian online grocery store that delivers home and food essentials. Big Basket is one of India’s largest grocery stores and was established in 2011 by Hari Menon, V.S. Sudhakar, Vipul Parekh, Abhinayss Choudhari, and V. S. Ramesh. Its headquarters is located in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. India’s fastest online grocery shop is growing immensely fast and receives up to 100,000 orders per day. It is recently owned by Tata Group, which helped it acquire 64% of the company.

Growth Fact: Big Basket clocked up the market valuation of $1.85 billion as of May 2021.

Big Basket Startup - Key Points

• Company Name : Big Basket
• Founded : 2011
• Founder : Hari Menon, V.S. Sudhakar, Vipul Parekh, Abhinayss Choudhari, V. S. Ramesh
• Headquarters : Bangalore, Karnataka, India
• Parent organization : Tata Group
• Website : www.bigbasket.com
• Type of service offered : Grocery Delivery

Big Basket Story - Beginning of the Idea

The failure of the dot com bubble made the founders of Big Basket create this unique website. They first started www.fabmart.com back in 1999, an online platform for selling books, toys, and groceries. Then in the year 2011, the company came with the idea of something new, and as the Smartphone Company was booming at that time, they decided to come up with something that was not available, and that was the time they realized of starting an online grocery shop. Before setting up its first warehouse, Big Basket used to provide services by purchasing products from metro cash and carry stores.

Financial Fact: Big Basket’s expenses were raised from Rs 3365 crore in FY19 to Rs. 4411 crores in FY20.

Big Basket Startup – Services & Products

The company has launched over three businesses such as:

• BB Daily: This delivers customers with fresh groceries and milk within a short period. If the order is placed before 10 PM, the goods are delivered the next day within 5 AM to 7 AM.
• BB Beauty: This provides the customers with a wide range of personal care and beauty products.
• BB Instant: These are the vending machines of Big Basket, available in tech parks, corporate offices, etc.

Big Basket Startup - Founders

• Hari Menon Hari Menon is the co-founder and CEO of Big Basket. He was a former CEO of Symphoni Industrial AI, Timeli, Serus Corporation, and Tumri and pursued his MBA from Carnegie Mellon University.
• Vipul Parekh Vipul Parekh is the Co-founder of Fabmall and the former director of companies such as Peepul Capital- a leading private equity fund. Besides, that he has also worked as a business development head at the Wipro InfoTech Group, he is a former alumnus of IIM Bangalore.
• VS Sudhakar VS Sudhakar is also the CEO of Big Basket and was the former CEO of Planetasia and has great experience in the IT sector.
• VS Ramesh VS Ramesh is the Head of Supply Chain and Logistics at Big Basket. He has over 21 years of experience in operations and logistics and graduated from Karnataka University in Electronics Engineering.
• Abhinay Choudhari Abhinay Choudhari is the head of New Initiatives at Big Basket. He was a former employee at iGATE and Infosys. He was the founder of www.stylecountry.com and is a former alumnus of IIM Ahmadabad.

Big Basket Startup – Investors and Funding

Over 17 investors fund Big Basket, and the recent investors include Alibaba Group and CDC Group. Big Basket has fundraised over an amount of $1.1 billion in 17 rounds. The latest fund was raised on April 15, 2020, with a Debt Financing Round.

Big Basket Startup – Competitors

The top 2 competitors of Big Basket include:

• Grofers
• Jio Market
• Ninjacart
• PepperTap
• FreshDirect
• Nature’s Basket
• ZopSmart
• DMart
• Tokri
• Dunzo

Note: Grofers is considered as one of the tough competitors to Big Basket. It is a Gurugram based online delivery startup that was started in the year 2013.

Big Basket Startup - Acquisitions & Mergers

Big Basket Startup - Business Model

This online platform has a wide range of products available. It has over 10000 brands and more than 18000 available on its app and website. The products mostly available are vegetables, rice, packaged food products, beverages, etc. Initially, the company followed the Just-in-Time model. Now, the Inventory Model is followed where the products are directly sourced from the manufactures.

Big Basket Startup Story - Revenue

The revenue of Big Basket has reached up to Rs. 3818 crores at the end of March 31, 2020, with a growth of 36%.

• Its sales have doubled and have reached up to $2 billion by the year 2021.
• Its services are provided in over 26 cities of India.
• It is endorsed by Shah Rukh Khan- one of the most popular celebrities of Bollywood.

Note: Big Basket is planning to establish warehouses in 26 cities of India and expand Big Basket’s range.

Big Basket: Largest Online Grocery Store

So, this was all about Big Basket. It is one of the newest and most excellent ways established to buy groceries online. It has bought a significant change by building this platform that delivers groceries in the right of the customers’ doorsteps and has made people's lives more convenient. This modernized grocery store has received great success within a few years.