Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding plans to invest about US$200 million in India’s online supermarket Bigbasket.
This leads a $280 million funding round and would give it a stake of about 25 per cent in the startup, insiders say. The deal is awaiting approval from the Competition Commission of India.
Based in Bangalore, the grocer has previously had investment discussions with Amazon.com, which was given government approval this year to invest $500 million into food retailing. Founder Jeff Bezos has said he will invest $5 billion in India.
Meanwhile, Alibaba has invested in One97 Communications, which runs digital payment and e-commerce businesses.
Owned by Innovative Retail Concepts, Bigbasket has TV commercials featuring Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan. The company offers delivery in more than 25 cities and offers 18,000 products from 1000-plus brands.