What is BigBasket all about?
Vegetables and fruits are a part of daily needs and necessities of the any mans life. Grocery shopping and daily essential needs shopping is an additional task that one needs to chalk out time in the hustle and bustle of this chaotic life. But in this age of Internet and convenience everything is at your door step. If you can provide a door step service of anything then there is nothing like it. And this time when anyone who can make your life easier and more convenient can be called as an excellent service provider.
The same stands true for anyone who is providing a convenient service. Since grocery and retail is one such thing that people need everyday and building a business around it is not an easy task. But to solve the problem of daily commute to the grocery store or the market and buy everything that you need. BigBasket was introduced. It is a grocery and retail food delivery application. That helps in Deliviring your grocery needs in just a few clicks.
How BigBasket came into existence?
Big Basket which is a part of Innovative Retail concepts Private Limited is India’s largest food and grocery shopping platform. BigBasket.com an Online shopping platform was started in the October of 2011. In the IT hub of the India, Bengaluru city. It was co-founded by five Gentlemen, Hari Menon, VS Sudhakar, VS Ramesh, Vipul Parekh and Abhinay Choudhari. These were the pioneers behind the invention because of whom the Bigbasket.com has joined the elite club of the Unicornclub within less than even a decade of its advent in the Industry of eCommerce businesses.
About the founders and the co-founders:
Hari Menon studied was born and bought in the It City of Bangalore. He did his engineering from BITs Pilani college in Bangalore and was to have a secure life and future in a secure company, the urge for adventure led him to start the series of companied he has after having worked with Wipro and Planetesia. After his work experience with them he was appointed as the CEO of Indiaskills and then he ventured out to establish the FabMart with the same founders he goes on to build the current Billion Dollar Venture That is the Bis Basket.
Abhinay Choudhari who is another master mind behind the founding of the BigBasket. Com. He was born and bought in a small Township of Bhopal and he foundly remembers that he is a sports enthusiast. He gives a lot of credit to how sports shaped him as a person and helped him in the growth of his personality. He then moved to live in the hostel in the city of Jablapur to study Agricultural engineering in the Jabalpur college of Engineering. He pursued sports even while he was there and learnt a lot of independence and self-reliance from there. From there with a sense of responsibility towards his family he decided to study hard and crack the Common admission Test to for admission to Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. Where his career path became more clear and he went to make friends for life over there. After which he went to Mitsubishi for work and then was drawn to start an ecommerce clothing called Style Live which came crashing down as the dotcom crashed and he tried selling it to FabMart who were facing their own set of challenges. So they didn’t buy it and he had to go back to a corporate jobs where he had to jump around a lot due to the crashing Industry and he finally kept in Touch with his friends from FamMart who joined him to Open the Venture BigBasket.com
VS Sudhakar, VS Ramesh and Hari Menon and Vipul Parekh joined him in this particular venture. He had his stint in the US an in the UK for a very long time for different Business projects. Of different kinds. And he says that once the Entrepreneurial bug bites you then there is no turning back and the mind keeps wandering in the same direction. So in the US when he found this company did online delivery of Grocery. That is when he decided to start the Venture in India too.
Valuation and Investment:
Big Basket joined the elite club of Unicorn Club when just recently in the month of February. With a $50 million being pumped into the company by an already, existing Investor Alibaba. The other Investors include,Helion, Zodius Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners, Sands Capital, International Finance Corporation, and Abraaj Group.
Journey so far:
Abhinay Choudari is one of the key people behind this venture of the BigBasket.com . When he lived in the UK with his wife and his kid he got an opportunity to work with the supply chain management of an Online grocery store that would have deliver the food and grocery Items to one’s doorstep and was extremely convenient for working professionals. He had his Aha moment at that time. For people who are working the thought of even going grocery shopping is so tiresome. The pain of having to get ready and then having to go to the mall and then look for parking which is almost never available and then having to then buy the grocery. So he thought that an Online Grocery store would be a great idea and would be the most convenient thisng for the hardworking Indians. He immediately flew down to India and started discussing this Idea with his friends from FabMart and they were on Board. With financial help from the CitiBank The project took off and is now running successfully.
Obstacles faced and overcome
As such a thing did not exist in the past, having to get Investors on board was a challenging task but with a little bit of negotiation that went smoothly too and thorough training was implemented to ensure that the quality of the products were maintained.
Expansion and future plan
To evade compition Bigbasket acquired Delyver in 2015 which was a a hyperlocal delivery startup apart from that they are not looking at any expansion as of now and the Intend to Acquire the cities in India.
Impact on the society
Big Basket currently has its business up and running in eight cities and 10 Tier II cities selling around 19,000 products including fruits, vegetables, meat, beverages and personal care products and claims to be fulfilling over one million orders per month.
