Grofers raises $60 Mn in Series F round at $425 Mn valuation from SoftBank

Private label focused online grocery platform Grofers has raised $60 million fresh funds in Series F round from SoftBank Vision Group. The investment appears to be a part of $120-140 million round that the Gurguram-based company is eying to close.

With this round, Grofers has scooped up about $285 million risk capital from SoftBank, Sequoia Capital, and Tiger Global among others. The company is reportedly valued $425 million (post-money).

Grofers was valued about $250 million when it raised last funding round in March last year. Currently, SoftBank Vision Group owns about 42 per cent equity in the company.

Grofers is in a direction to become 100 per cent private label driven online grocery store. Its plans to evolve as private label brand in FMCG and staple verticals. Differentiating further from competition, the firm has now been betting big on group buying.

The firm has been expanding its group buying programme (GBP) in categories including kitchen utensils, cosmetics, and food items like cereals and biscuits. Buoyed by initial traction, the company anticipates GBP to contribute 25 to 30 per cent revenue in the current fiscal.

The fresh infusion from SoftBank is much needed round for Grofers as online grocery has turned hyper-competitive in the past few months. Besides BigBasket, Swiggy also entered the space with Swiggy Store. Currently, it’s delivering eventually everything including grocery.

In one of the largest funding round in the space, Alibaba led a $300 million(Rs 1,921 crore) Series E round in Bigbasket in February last year.

With 57.7 per cent jump in revenue, Grofers earned Rs 53.47 crore during FY18. Meanwhile, the company controlled its losses by a mere 3.7 per cent from Rs 268.33 crore in FY17 to Rs 258.3 crore in FY18.

Presently, the company claims a monthly revenue run rate of Rs 150 crore and expects to earn Rs 2,500 crore in FY19.

The development was reported by ET via paper.vc.