Blinkit Success Story – India’s Fastest Growing E-Commerce Platform

Blinkit (formerly known as Grofers) is one of India’s leading grocery delivery platforms that got founded in 2013. The company was formerly known as Grofers and its name got changed to Blinkit on Dec 13, 2021, after its rebranding. Blinkit is currently the third-largest grocery delivery service provider in India. It acquires around 14% of the total market share only after BigBasket and Amazon. The company currently operates in more than 28 Indian cities and delivers orders within 10 minutes to its customers. So let us get into this article to read the success story of this amazing company.

Blinkit – Key Points

• Company Name – Blinkit
• Founded – Dec 2013
• Founders – Saurabh Kumar, Albinder Dhindsa
• Valuation – $1.01 Billion
• Revenue - $302 Million
• Industry – E-commerce, Online Shopping, Grocery Delivery
• Area Served – India
• Parent Organization – Grofers International Pvt. Ltd.
• The number of employees – 2000 (approx.)
• Website – blinkit.in / grofers.com

Blinkit – Founders and Team

• Albinder Dhindsa – Albinder is the CEO and co-founder of the coampny. He holds a degree in B.Tech from IIT, Delhi and an MBA degree from the Columbia Business School.
• Saurabh Kumar – Saurabh is the co-founder of Blinkit. He holds a B.Tech degree in Civil Engineering from IIT Bombay and an MS in Transportation Engineering from The University of Texas, Austin.

Blinkit – Brand Name, Logo, and Tagline

• Brand Name – The brand name of the company is 100% appropriate for the kind of business they do. They deliver groceries to their customers within a blink of an eye and hence the name, Blinkit. It is quite an impressive name that resonates with the business beautifully.
• Logo – The company’s logo is very neat and clean looking. It is in orange colour which is a symbol of change, success, happiness, and balance.
• Tagline – The company’s tagline is – Let's Blink it.

Blinkit – Business Model

Blinkit has a marketplace business model. It doesn’t own any personal warehouse or grocery stores. Instead, the company partners with various local grocery shops and merchants in the city and send the delivery boys to pick up the ordered items from them. The delivery boys then deliver the orders to the respective customers.

Blinkit accepts orders from their app or website and the tie-up system helps them to reach the local grocery shops and deliver orders to their customer within 10 minutes. Blinkit makes a profit out of these orders as they charge a certain commission on each order.

Blinkit – Revenue Model

Blinkit follows the commission-based revenue model. It has partnered with various merchants and local shop owners for grocery delivery in the local areas. Blinkit charges a certain percentage of commission from the merchants on these orders. These ranges between 8% - 15% for order value up to INR 700 and 12% - 15% for order value up to INR 1000. It also charges a delivery fee when the order value is below INR 250 from the customers.

Blinkit – Revenue

The company recorded a revenue of INR 1282.3 Cr. in the FY 2019 and INR 2289.2 Cr. in the FY 2020.

In the last FY, Blinkit recorded a revenue of INR 2725 Cr.

Blinkit – Growth

Some of the growth factors of the company are as follows:

• Blinkit is delivering more than 1.25 lakh orders every day in India. It recently reported more than 1 million orders in a week across 12 to 13 cities.
• It has more than 5000 products assorted on its platform which are ready to be delivered within 10 minutes.
• The company saw a net growth in its revenue of 26.2% from FY 2020.
• It is the 3rd largest grocery delivery platform in India.
• Blinkit serves millions of customers every year.

Blinkit – Funding and Investors

Blinkit has raised $1 Billion in funding to date. All the details regarding the funding and investors of the company are as follows:

• $500 K – Seed Round/ Series A Round, Sequoia Capital, Deepinder Goyal, Dec 2014
• $10 M – Series B Round, Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, Feb 2015
• $35 M – Series C Round, Sequoia Capital, Apr 2015
• $120 M – Series D, Cyriac Roeding – Roeding Ventures, Softbank, Sequoia Capital, Nov 2015
• $839 K – Debt Financing, Trifecta Capital Advisors, Sep 1, 2017
• $12.91 M – Series D Round, Grofers International, Oct 25, 2017
• $53.81 M – Series E Round, Softbank Vission Fund, May 16, 2018
• $220 M – Series F Round, Softbank Vision Fund, May 15, 2019
• $10 M – Series F Round, Abu Dhabi Capital Group, July 15, 2019
• $70 M – Series F Round, Softbank Vision Fund, Aug 19, 2019
• $18.83 M – Series F Round, Bennett Coleman and Co Ltd., Oct 29, 2019
• $43.04 M – Corporate Round, Grofers International Pte Ltd., Nov 18, 2019
• $55 M – Venture Round, Softbank Vision Fund and others, Nov 13, 2020
• $100 M – Zomato, Aug 17, 2021
• $16.7 M – KTB Ventures, Sep 29, 2021
• $100 M – Zomato, Mar 11, 2022
• $150 M – Debt Financing, Zomato, Mar 16, 2022

Blinkit – Competitors

Blinkit has always been the favourite of all the investors but it still has many competitors in the market. Many big brands and supermarkets are slowly focusing on selling online. This increases the competition between e-commerce platforms. Some of the top competitors of the company are as follows:

• BigBasket
• Zepto
• Pepper Tap
• Swiggy
• Zopnow
• JioMart
• Dunzo
• Nature’s Basket
• Amazon

Blinkit – Challenges Faced

Some of the major challenges faced by the company are as follows:

• Unsuccessful Operations – Blinkit had to face unsuccessful operations in various major cities. Due to this, it had to shut down its operation in Bhopal, Kochi, Visakhapatnam, and many others.
• Huge Discounts – The strategy of offering huge discounts to its customers is backfiring the company now. They have already invested more than INR 600 Cr. In the past 3 – 4 months for their business’s growth and now they are looking to cut costs, thereby reducing their cash burn.
• Backlashes – Blinkit had to face various backlashes in the past few months. Many critics didn’t support their 10-minute grocery delivery service as they call it an exploitation of their employees. Blinkit also sacked around 5% of its employees in major cities like Mumbai, Kolkata, and Hyderabad. They have also been reported in the delayed payment of many vendors.
• Competitors – Blinkit is however one of the top players in the market, it still has various competitors. Some of them are growing at a good speed and they have a good customer base as well.
• Quality Issues & Delayed Service – Blinkit had to face various criticism due to its delayed service and quality issues. It is one of the major challenges of the company to provide top quality service to its customers.

Blinkit – Future Plans

Blinkit has many exciting plans for the coming future. Some of the upcoming plans for the future are as follows:

• Blinkit will focus on becoming the most preferred grocery delivery platform in India.
• They will soon expand their business and start providing their services in various other cities as well.
• The company will also include other items like baby care, fruits, bakery item, pet care, flowers, etc.
• Blinkit is looking forward to expanding 100 times its present size in the next five years.