BigBasket bags Rs 5.5 crore from existing investor Trifecta Venture Debt Fund

Online grocery firm BigBasket has secured Rs 5.5 crore from one of its existing investors, Trifecta Venture Debt Fund, as per the RoC (registrar of companies) filings with the Ministry of corporate affairs.

Supermarket Grocery and Supplies that runs BigBasket, has issued equity and compulsory convertible preference shares to Trifecta at a premium of Rs 474 and Rs 4,980 for equity and preference share apiece, respectively, reported Financial Express.

Earlier, BigBasket had raised Rs 45 crore from Trifecta Capital in March this year.

Amazon had shown interest in Bigbasket, however, talks failed owing to differences over valuation. After the failed attempt to invest in Bigbasket, now Amazon is talking to Grofers for a minority stake in the Gurugram-headquartered company.

The online grocery firm has got Indian government approval for foreign direct investment (FDI) in August. Now, the firm can retail food products manufactured and produced in India.

In July this year, Paytm Mall and Alibaba jointly began due-diligence to pump-in $200 million round in Bigbasket that will shoot-up later valuation to $900 million (post-money).

The Bengaluru-based e-grocer has posted a loss of Rs 78 crore on revenues of Rs 580 crore in the year ended March 2016. The company registered about Rs 1,400 crore in revenue in fiscal year 2017.

SoftBank and Sequoia Capital-backed Grofers, a close competitor to BigBasket also posted loss as its revenue for the year through March 2016 fell 32% to Rs 58.34 lakh from Rs 86.38 lakh the previous year.

E-commerce companies in India are struggling to bring new buyers. Currently, India has about 70 million online shoppers and this number is almost stagnant from past 18 months or so. Meanwhile, grocery is considered as a sticky category as consumers tend to buy it at least twice a month.

According to a recent report by India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), the country’s food retail market is expected to reach $915 billion (Rs 61 lakh crore) by 2020.

Trifecta Capital: Website