BigBasket targets Rs 3,500 cr turnover

Alibaba-backed BigBasket is looking to close the current fiscal with revenues of Rs 3,500 crore, said a top company executive. The online food and grocery retailer had clocked revenues of Rs 2,000 crore in fiscal 2018.

Hari Menon, co-founder and chief executive officer, BigBasket, said, the company has scaled significantly on the revenue side. "We closed with Rs 2,000 crore topline last fiscal and are expecting to grow to Rs 3,500 crore this fiscal. This actually puts us among the top five grocery retailers in the country. We have the ability to offer large fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies, in terms of reach, deep market insights, digital analytics and so on. We are looking to build BigBasket into a really large business and grow the market while leading the competitive set," said Menon.

The company is also planning to raise a fresh round of funds of up to $200 million. "It's a little early to talk about, but we'll do a fund raise in the next two-three months. It will be in the $150 million to $200 million range. We'd recently raised money so business is well capitalised. The new fund raise will be for a faster growth of some of our new businesses," said Menon.

BigBasket is also looking to launch new sales channels in the near future to be able to better serve its target audience and build more stickiness with the food and grocery platform. Among the most interesting sales channels will be an unmanned food and grocery vending machines/ kiosk that can be accessed by consumers through a mobile application to buy products at their convenience. Over the three years, approximately 6,000 such vending machines/ kiosks will be installed across tier-I cities starting with Bangalore where the project is already in a very advanced stage of implementation.

"The vending machines/ kiosks will be launched in our top 10 markets. In a month or so we will introduce it in Mumbai market, too. To be housed in large residential complexes these will offer a variety of products, 40-odd, that consumers can browse using the 'bb instant' mobile application. The kiosk will be able to identify the customer and dole out the products once s/he approaches it to collect the goods ordered. Payment mechanism will also be built into the mobile app," said Menon.

The food and grocery e-tailer has established significant presence across the country with operations in 25 cities. In a month or so from now, it is set to launch operations in Kochi. "Thereafter, we will stay where we are. That's because it's a large market footprint available for us to grow. We have close to 10 million registered customers and we are expecting to double this number as well by offering them a choicest range of products," said Menon.

On their exclusive partnership for ITC's new range of noodles, Menon said, the FMCG major is a very crucial business partner. In fact, BigBasket has doubled its business with ITC and is expecting to grow a lot faster while also becoming a preferred channel for such companies in India.

"A lot of focus is going to come from segments that are new/ innovative and digital platforms will be the best route for such products to hit the market. That's because one can get a lot of feedback on how consumers are responding to such offerings and we have triggered a lot of those through our internal systems or digital engine fire as we call it," said Menon.

FILLING THE CART

• Rs 2,000 cr – topline of BigBasket last fiscal 
   
• $200 mn – company planning to raise in fresh round of funding