BigBasket raises $300 million from Alibaba, others

BigBasket, a company managed by Supermarket Grocery Supplies Pvt. Ltd, said that it has raised $300 million in a Series E funding round led by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. International Finance Corp., Sands Capital, and Dubai-based private equity investor Abraaj Capital participated in the round.

“The funds will be directed towards bettering our technological, analytical, and infrastructural prowess, all of which will enable the company to move up the curve. BigBasket is currently partnering with about 1,800 farmers throughout the country and aims to become the ‘most preferred partner’ for up to 3,000 of them,” said BigBasket Co-Founder and Chief Executive Hari Menon, in a public statement.

BigBasket was advised by Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas with a team led by Partners Reeba Chacko and Akshay Bhat.

Trilegal acted for Alibaba and the Trilegal team was led by Partner Rohan Ghosh Roy along with Senior Associates Jeet Chaudhuri and Anurag Shrivastav and Associates Tanay Shah, Pujitha Gullapalli, Vinit Patwari and Divyajyot Verma.

Also included were Partner Nisha Kaur Uberoi along with Counsel Soumya Hariharan, Senior Associate Gautam Chawla and Associates Ankita Gulati and Mathew George, who advised on competition law aspects.

Khaitan & Co with a team led by Partner Aakash Choubey along with Principal Associate Kunal Mehta and Associate Shreya Dua acted upon Abraaj Capital. Partner Avaantika Kakkar and Senior Associate Kirthi Srinivas advised on competition issues.

BigBasket is currently operating in numerous Indian cities such as, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Ahmedabad, Patna, Kolkata, Jaipur, Vijayawada, Indore, Punjab and Lucknow and the deal is expected to give the online grocery firm the resources to hold on to its lead in the market.