Milkbasket scores $10.5 Mn fresh infusion from Unilever and other existing backers

Micro delivery  (aka milktech :-)) space has been talk of the town ever since Swiggy acquired Suprdaily in all-cash deal and BigBasket trigger consolidation by acquihiring smaller startups. Following the interest of deep-pocketed players, early evangelist - Milkbasket has been on a lookout to grab a larger round (beyond $30 million).

While the Gurugram-based firm is yet to win a larger cheque, it just announced $10.5 million fresh fund infusion from existing backers - Unilever, Mayfield Partners, Kalaari Capital and Blume Ventures including several family offices.

The faith of existing backers in Milkbasket comes at a time when it’s facing heightened competition from well-capitalised firms. “This funding - our largest fund infusion till date - is a testament to our robust execution, the team and continued trust of our investors in the growth of Milkbasket,” said Anant Goel, Co-founder and CEO Milkbasket to BusinessLine via PTI.

Last December, the company raised $7 million Series A round led by Mayfield Advisors. Two months ago, Milkbasked had cornered Rs 20 crore debt from Sachin Bansal’s BACQ.

So far, Milkbasket has raised around $25.5 million total risk capital across three institutional rounds. Apart from milk delivery, the startup enables customers to order from a selection of grocery items and daily essentials that get delivered to their doorstep using its own fleet every morning.

According to the company and RoC filings, the company is growing at 7X and closed FY18 with Rs 35 crore in revenue. With 400,000 plus customer base, Milkbasket claimed to deliver over 10 million orders in the last 4 years.

On average, Milkbasket claims to receive 20 orders per customer in a month that reflects the stickiness and loyalty factor of the online milk and daily essential delivery segment. It claims 70% revenue from non-milk items.

This is a much-needed round for Milkbasket that had forayed into Bengaluru and Hyderabad, Noida and parts of Delhi. While it competes with BBdaily everywhere, Dailninja and Suprdaily are core competitors for Milbasket in Bengaluru and Hyderabad.