We Want To Scale Up Profitably: Hari Menon,

CEO, BigBasket.com

For the founding team of BigBasket.com, a grocery e-tailer based in Bangalore, this is the
second innings in e-commerce. The team of five VS Sudhakar, Hari Menon, Vipul Parekh, VS
Ramesh and Abhinay Choudhari had earlier launched Fabmart.com (backed by ChrysCapital),
selling music, books, toys, jewellery and finally, groceries. But the grocery business later became
pure play retail, was hived off and merged with Trinethra, did raise funding from India Value
Fund and was ultimately sold to the Aditya Birla Group. The online business finally became
Indiaplaza.com, an online shopping mall, and the five founders still remain shareholders.
However, in September 2011, they got together to launch the grocery e-tailing business
BigBasket.com, roping in TutorVistas K. Ganesh and Meena Ganesh as angel investors. The
firm has also raised $10 million from Ascent Capital, which marks the first institutional investment
in this space and the largest series A round of funding in an e-commerce firm.
BigBasket.com plans to add products like organic foods, pesticide-free fruits and vegetables,
exotic cheese and frozen foods to its inventory, and also wants to feature international brands.
The company will also introduce private labels across categories, which will help it spread brand
awareness and increase margins.
BigBasket.com plans to scale profitably and sees margins improving as it moves across the
value chain. At the peak level, when you are buying directly from companies, this category will
run at a margin of 20-23 per cent, said co-founder and CEO Hari Menon in an interview with
VCCircle. Till recently, Menon was the CEO of IndiaSkills, a joint venture between Manipal
Education and UKs City & Guilds. Here are the excerpts:
What has changed since you started Fabmall in 1999?
One fundamental change is how users have adapted to the Internet as a medium for shopping.
The fear associated with online shopping has reduced considerably and in this category, a lot of
sales happen through cash on delivery (COD) and Sodexho coupons. Also, people today are
much more focused on profitability. Earlier, they focused more on topline and market valuation,

driven by an exit perspective. Scaling profitably is critical, though, and thats how a player
approaches a business today, as compared to 1999. Plus, we are a lot more networked now,
being in this business for the past 8-9 years.
How are you sourcing products across categories?
Right now, we are dealing in four broad categories. First is staples (rice, dal, spices, etc.) and
within a month of starting operations, we have moved to private label. We currently source these
from the mandis to one of our suppliers who cleans and packages those. From mandis, we will
move further down the supply chain to the mills, and that is how your margins keep rising.
One category, which will be a big differentiator for BigBasket.com, is fruits and vegetables. But it
will be very difficult to crack. We have a farm-to-home concept where we intend to get the
produce directly from the farms, without the intermediaries. Typically, the produce stays at least
24 hours in a store when you see it deteriorating. Right now, we are working with Safal but over a
period of time, we will build our network of farming bodies and that will help us ship directly to
buyers.
Another growing category is frozen meat and dairy products. Then there is FMCG foods and
non-foods (toiletries and personal care). Right now, we deal with the distributors in these
categories, but over the time, we will move up the value chain. Currently, we are working closely
with Metro Cash & Carry. But once we start building our volume, we will approach these players
directly. In fact, we will start approaching the top 8-10 suppliers within the next 6-8 months.
We will also introduce private labels in categories like jams and pickles, but that will be one year
down the line.
But what about the delivery model?
The entire last mile is owned by BigBasket.com. We have our own fleet of 50 vans, which are
being commissioned for delivery. We follow a hub-and-spoke model where all the goods are
bought and stocked in a warehouse (it will be built as the company moves into direct purchase in
the next 6-8 months). The warehouse will then supply to the hubs. We have three in Bangalore
in Whitefield, Kanakpura and Yashwantpur and they cover the entire city. From there, the
delivery executives (called customer experience managers) deliver the goods in four time slots
7 am-9 am, 11 am-1:30 pm, 3 pm-5 pm and 7 pm-10 pm.
The funding we have raised will help us expand into four other cities by December 2012. In the
next few months, we will crack the Bangalore model so that we can replicate it in other cities
(which are yet to be decided).
How is the traction on the site? Whats your average billing?

We have launched the site on December 5; so its been a little over three months. At present, we
average a little over 300 orders a day and the average value per order is around Rs 1,200,
compared to Rs 300-400 for a physical store. This is because customers come to us for monthly
purchase, which is a very sticky category. Customers visit us at least twice a month and we
expect that to increase with the rise of fruits and vegetables sales. As per the last count we have
had, about 3,500 customers have shopped here at least once.
You said that when you started Fabmall, you looked at it as a retail business. Do you feel
the same about BigBasket.com?
This is a business which is much more retail and physical than any other e-commerce business
because we have to operate warehouses, maintain hubs and a supply chain, and will eventually
deal with more than 250 vendors and carry 7,000 SKUs (stock-keeping units). So if you dont
have the retail ingrained and think that you just need e-commerce and technology, youll be
dead. You need to understand supply chain really well to run this business.
How long a runway does the series A round give you?
This round should last us for three years. The whole concept is to scale up profitably. We want to
expand to new cities and thats why the capital is required. From an operational perspective, we
dont need much capital.

SOURCE : http://techcircle.vccircle.com/2012/03/07/we-want-to-scale-up-profitablybigbasket-com-ceo-hari-menon/

Of E-Commerce in the 90s to starting

up BigBasket: Hari Menon [Video]
Hari Menon, the CEO & Co-Founder of BigBasket.com, is not new to
entrepreneurship. Back in 1998, he was part of the team which started Indias first ecommerce venture called Fabmall. From then to now, e-commerce has changed a
lot.
By 2007, the team had ventured into offline retail as well. After selling the chain of
over 200 stores to Aditya Birla Group in 2006, he took a break from entrepreneurship
to join the Manipal Group. Now he is back in the game with BigBasket.com, a fast

growing online grocery store. The e-commerce portal opened its first warehouse in
Bangalore earlier this year and plans to do the same in other cities soon. A plan to
expand to other cities is on the cards.
In this conversation he talks about his journey through the dot com bubble and the
early startup rat race to how BigBasket.com has scaled over the years.

Big Basket

India Online Grocery E-commerce

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

bigbasket

Type

Private

Industry

Internet

Founded

2011

Founder

Hari Menon V.S Sudhakar Vipul

Parekh Abhinay Choudhari

Headquarter Bangalore, Karnataka, India

s
Area served India
Services

E-commerce
(Online Grocery)

Website

BigBasket.com

BigBasket is an Indian online grocery provider listing over 14,000 products from
more than 1,000 brands. It was started in Bangalore and subsequently expanded its
operations to Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mysore, Pune and expanding
further in Ahmedabad, Baroda, Surat. BigBaskets product categories include Fresh
Fruits and Vegetables, Grocery and Staples, Bread, Dairy, Eggs, Beverages,
Branded foods, Household Items, Personal Care, Health care, Meat, Home &
Kitchen Products, Electronics & Appliances, Cosmetics, imported products and

gourmet products. Many more categories are going to be expanded. The site is
known for the offers that it runs on different products throughout the year.
As of August 2015, BigBasket raised $100 million in fundraising rounds led by Zodius
Capital and Helion Ventures. The company is currently valued at a billion dollars.

History
In the year 1999, Six businessmenK Vaitheeswaran, V S Sudhakar, V S Ramesh,
Hari Menon, Sundeep Thakran and Vipul Parekhfounded Fabmart.com, an online
business in India. Two years after the start of this website, they included grocery as
part of the business. Despite being in its nascent stage, the website fared well.
Following its success, the founders started a brick and mortar chain store named
Fabmall in various parts of South India. This business grew to be a large grocery
chain and was sold to the Aditya Birla Group in the year 2006, which was renamed
as More.
The founders continued to be interested in the concept of an online grocery store,
which ultimately gave birth to BigBasket.com in 2011. The company was started with
three principlesa high focus on customer satisfaction, the inclusion of a wide
variety of products and brands, and continuous innovation through technology.
BigBaskets success can be attributed to the implementation of these three
principles.
Customers have access to same-day delivery if theyre in one of the major cities
where the company operates. The companys 99.3% on-time delivery and 99.5%
order fill rate, along with a no-inquiry customer return policy, have greatly contributed
to BigBaskets high customer satisfaction.
More than 35% of the products sold in the online grocery store are from their own
brands. Recently the company also launched a bakery that delivers freshly baked
bread, launched its own brand of premium coffee, and recipe kits for cooking
gourmet meals at home.

About The Founders

The five founders of BigBasket are known in the industry for their rich experience in
building a strong and successful startup. Mr Hari Menon is the CEO and Head of
Merchandising of the company. Before BigBasket, Hari was the CEO of India Skills,
a vocational education firm. He has also worked with Wipro and held the position of
Country Head in Planetasia. He is a former student of BITS Pilani.
Mr Vipul Parekh is the Head of Finance and Marketing at the company. He was an
investment director at Peepul Capital prior to his current position. Vipul is a former
student of IIM Bangalore.
Mr V S Sudhakar was the founder and CEO of Fabmall, a leading retail business.
Before this, Sudhakar was the CEO of Planetasia, Indias first online service
business. He also has a significant experience in senior-level management in the IT
industry.
Mr V S Ramesh is the Head of Logistics and Supply Chain at BigBasket. He is also
the co-founder of Fabmall. He has also served the Indian Navy, with a total
experience of over 21 years. He has a degree in Electronics Engineering from
Karnataka University.
Mr Abhinay Choudhari is the Head of New Initiatives at BigBasket. Prior to this role,
Abhinay has worked with some major IT companies across the globe. He is a former
student of IIM Ahmedabad.

Current Status and Prospective Development

BigBasket has delivered over 3 million orders. As of August 2015, the company
operates in seven major cities, viz. Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai,
Mysore, and Delhi. With a total employee strength of over 1,800 people, the
company is serving more than 200,000 regular customers and is growing 20% every
month.

Over the next year, the company plans to expand its operations to more than 50
cities. It also intends to increase the product range on offer significantly by adding
more categories and expanding the existing ones.

Innovation
BigBasket has launched both iOS and Android mobile phone apps, which allow
customers to order from anywhere at anytime using their smartphones.
Smart Basket
The store also has a feature called Smart Basket, which is capable of predicting the
needs of recurring customers. This can reduce order time by up to 10 minutes for
regular customers.
The company utilises unique automation processes to run their operations. One of
these is a system to help staff pick the right items and reduce order errors to almost
0.2%. To boost customer retention, BigBasket has automated systems to gather
feedback on all aspects of service. They also make use of customer analytics for
marketing automation programs directed at specific customer lifecycle stages.
Fresho
The company launched the Fresho brand of products in 2015. Fresho encompasses
vegetables and fruits, meat, coffee and bread products, and currently accounts for
almost 30% of BigBaskets sales revenues.
Fresho Coffee is a service that delivers freshly ground, premium filter coffee on an
order-by-order basis. The brand offers a series of in-house coffee blends, namely
Dark Nectar, Smooth Caramel, Exotica, Morning Dew, and Noir Creme.
Aiming to capture a slice of the baked goods market, Fresho also offers freshly
baked bread, using a baked-to-order business model.
Express Delivery

Logistical innovations have allowed BigBasket to provide customers with an express

delivery option. This service delivers a grocery order within one hour of processing
and although it currently exclusive to Bangalore, the company plans to extend
express delivery to all major cities in the near future.
Happy Chef
To engage more customers, BigBasket provides ready made kits for gourmet dishes
which include recipes, cooking instructions and pre-measured ingredients. Their
recipes are categorised into salads, minis, casual dining, and mains. With this
service, BigBasket aims to encourage home-cooking and allow customers to eat
restaurant-like food at minimal expense.

Fundraising and Future Investment

In its Series A, B, & C fundraising, BigBasket has raised a total of USD 60 mn
through investors like Helion Venture Partners, Zodius Capital, Ascent Capital, and
Bessemer Venture Partners. The company plans to use this fund to primarily expand
its business to new cities and towns.
Apart from expansion, the company is also constantly looking to invest in new
technologiesboth online and mobileto enhance customer experience and create
warehouses to quickly deliver orders to various parts of a city. Finally, the company
has plans to invest in last mile delivery, which includes the addition of cold-chain
enabled energy-efficient vehicles.

Awards & recognition

BigBasket secured the BMA Best Startup of the Year award in 2014.
One of its founders, Mr Abhinay Choudhari, was awarded as one of the 50 Most
Talented Retail Professionals of India by CMO Asia & Asia Retail Congress.

External links

"Big Basket raises Rs.200 Cr". Business Standard. Retrieved 15 September 2014.

"BigBasket raises $32.8 million in series B funding". livemint. Retrieved 12

September 2014.

"BigBasket looking for a pan India presence". Business Standard. Retrieved 18

December 2014.

"BigBasket.com CEO, Hari Menons Leadership Lessons". The Economic Times.

Retrieved 12 December 2014.

BigBasket.com expects to
break-even in 36 months
The company expects to reach a turnover of Rs 1,800 crore by 2016-17
Private equity-backed online grocerer BigBasket.com is targeting an over seven-fold
jump in sales to Rs 1,800 crore in the next two financial years.
The company expects to clock Rs 1,800 crore turnover by 2016-17, said Hari
Menon, CEO of BigBasket.com, who had launched its services in Chennai.
The online retailer expects to end the current fiscal with a turnover of Rs 250 crore.
For the next two fiscal years, it is targeting an increased turnover of Rs 800 crore
and Rs 1800 crore, respectively, relying on the huge market potential, said Menon.
In the process, it hopes to achieve operations-level breakeven in the next three
years.
The company has a same-day order delivery in cities such as Bangalore, Mumbai,
Hyderabad and Pune and had launched operations in Chennai by setting up a
central warehouse and processing centre in the city.

Menon said at the city level they would achieve business breakeven much earlier
than anticipated.
It has an over 10,000 product range, including fresh fruits and vegetables, grocery
and staples, personal care, home and kitchen products. Prices are fixed similar to
the brick-and-mortar shops or slightly lower.
It is expected to launch its services in the National Capital Region this month,
followed by Kolkata in the later part of the calendar year.
The company claims it had a customer base of more than 450,000 with a monthly
order growth rate of more than 30 per cent. It is also looking at launching a data
analysis business, Brand Intelligence, to offer information related to customer trends
related to brands.
BigBasket.com had raised around Rs 400 crore in three rounds of funding, including
from Ascent Capital, Helion Venture Partners, Zodius Capital and Bessemer Venture
Partners.

Everything you wanted to know about Indias

largest online supermarket Bigbasket.com !
BigBasket.com is Indias largest online supermarket and allows a customer to walk
away from the drudgery of grocery shopping and welcome an easy relaxed way of
browsing and shopping for groceries. The company currently operates from
Bangalore, Mumbai and Hyderabad and has a diverse portfolio that carries more
than 12,000 products and over 1,000 brands.

The grocery retail market in India is growing at about 10% CAGR and is about
USD 350Bn in size. Within this the online grocery market is expected to be about
USD 10Bn in the next 4 years from now. A majority of this market is likely to be
concentrated in the urban cities in the country.There are a number of start-ups such
as ZopNow, Aaram-Shop, and Farm2Kitchen in this category with each city having
multiple local players. The winner in this category is going to be one who addresses
the multiple challenges in delivering a great service to the customer.

The story of how Bigbasket started is quite interesting and a story of sheer passion
and belief in the cause. In 1999, Mr V S Sudhakar, Mr Hari Menon , Mr Vipul
Parekh , Mr Abhinay Choudhari and Mr V S Ramesh started one of the first
online businesses in India called Fabmart.com. In 2001, they started an online
groceries business as a part of Fabmart. In spite of the market being in its infancy
then, Fabmart.com did exceedingly well. They then went on to setup a physical retail
chain called Fabmall which was a chain of grocery supermarkets in the South of
India. This business was sold in 2006, and eventually renamed More by the buyers,
the Aditya Birla Group. The founders however were always enamoured by online
grocery and in 2011, the same team recoupled and launched Bigbasket.com.
Today Bigbasket.com is one of the leading online grocers in India. The company
bases its success on the three pillars namely exceptional customer
focus ( Bigbasket offers same-day delivery across a city, 99.3% on time delivery,
99.5% order fill rate and a no questions asked customer return policy, all of which
has contributed to high customer loyalty and excellent customer feedback. On top of
it all, BigBasket compensates a customer every time it is not able to deliver on its
promise thus ensuring that there is consistent focus on raising the bar higher.) , wide
range and variety of products ( They have more than 40% of their sales coming
through their own brands.BigBasket has further innovated by offering products such
as cut fruits and vegetables, a range of recipe mixes and have recently
launched their own bakery in Bangalore that delivers bread baked to order )
and continuous innovation with the help of technology (BigBasket has both
android and iOS mobile apps which allow customers to order groceries on the go.
Features such as Smart-basket predicts what a customer needs more often and
reduces the time-to-order to within 5 minutes.)

Today, the five founder of Bigbasket.com are some of the most experience and well
known names in the industry with significant experience of building storng and
successful businesses. Mr Hari Menon is now the CEO and Head of
Merchandising at Bigbasket.com. Prior to this Hari was the CEO of Indiaskills, the
Vocational Education JV of Manipal Group with City & Guilds, UK. He was also the
Co-founder of Fabmall, one of the pioneers in the e-commerce and retail space in
India. Hari has served as the Country Head at Planetasia, one of Indias first Internet
services businesses and also worked with IT major Wipro as a Business Head in the
Infotech business. Hari is an alumnus of BITS Pilani. Mr V S Sudhakar is the
founder and CEO of Fabmall, a leading online and physical retail business. Prior to
Bibbasket, Sudhakar was the CEO of Planetasia, the first online focused services
business in the country. He has significant experience in general management at
senior levels in the IT industry.Mr Vipul Parekh is the Head of Finance &
Marketing at Bigbasket.com. Prior to this Vipul was an investment Director at
Peepul Capital, a leading Private Equity Fund. He has also been the Co-Founder of
Fabmall and a business development head in the Wipro Infotech Group. Vipul is an
alumnus of IIM Bangalore. Mr Abhinay Choudhari is the Head of New Initiatives
at Bigbasket.com. Prior to this, Abhinay worked with leading IT companies in
consulting engagements with key retail majors like Tesco and LEGO across the
world. This IIM Ahmedabad alumnus was also the founder of
Stylecountry.com. Mr V S Ramesh is the Head of Logistics & Supply Chain at
Bigbasket.com. He was also a Co-founder at Fabmall. Prior to Fabmall, he ran the
operations and logistics for a large fleet of ships for a shipping major. He has over 21
years of experience in the Indian Navy handling Operations and Logistics. He holds
an Electronics Engineering degree from the Karnataka University.
Last month Bigbasket crossed a million orders delivered. Bigbasket currently
operates in 3 cities Bangalore, Mumbai and Hyderabad and will expand
shortly to Pune, NCR and Chennai. The company which is 1000 people big has
more than 200,000 customers in three cities and are growing at 20% month on
month. They deliver around 5000 orders a day across the three cities and
their average order value across the three cities is about Rs. 1500/-.The
company is now planning to expand to 10 more cities over the next 12 months. Also
they are planning to undergo a significant expansion in their product range, gain
more depth in each category and add new categories of products. With their focus

on faster delivery times across the board and innovations online and on mobile to
make grocery shopping a breeze, customer have a lot to look forward to in the
coming months !

Bigbasket recently raised a funding of Rs 200 Crores . This makes our total fund
raise (Series A and B) at Rs. 280 crores. This round (Series B) of Rs 200 crores
came from Helion, Zodius and existing investors who participated including
Ascent Capital, Lion Rock Capital and serial entrepreneurs Ganesh Krishnan
and Meena Ganesh. Bigbasket plans to use these funds to primarily expand into
new geographies (Pune, Delhi, NCR, Chennai will be immediate) and 4 more
cities soon after. Another key area of investments will be technology. They plan
to significantly enhance customer experience, both online and mobile and enhance
our backend processes through increased investments in technology. Investments
will also be made in creating additional cold room facilities to significantly
increase their range of fresh produce. They also plan to invest heavily into last
mile delivery, including energy efficient vehicles which are cold chain enabled.

How do e-grocery websites such as BigBasket work?

Its fairly simple. You receive the order. You pack the product. You dispatch it and
voila one order complete. Use the same steps for other orders too.
The thing that you have to pay excessive care to is the quality of products before you
buy them and after you package them. DO NOT STOCK as it degrades the quality of
produce and they lose their nutrient values.
Margins are very low, but then again.... this type of business is for maximum user
engagement before it turns profitable.
Big Basket operates on a much larger scale. they have to stock to meet the huge

demands. They have hubs from where multiple delivery vans pick their orders and
then head on for delivery.

The Bigbasket of groceries is set to get bigger

ALOK SONI
4 SEPTEMBER 2015
Its usual for a company to send official statements to media (directly or via PR
agencies) when they raise funding, and even more usual when the funding is $50
million. But Bigbasket has not conformed to any conventions. Whether its their
inventory lead model while the startups are opting for zero-inventory model, or their
solution to hire and retain the delivery boys, they have approached it in a different
way and with much conviction.
According to a report published by Nielson (earlier in the year) based on a survey
conducted in 60 countries, a quarter of people who took the survey were ordering
groceries online and 55 percent intended to do so in future. Another study states that
the food and grocery retail in India is in excess of$294 billion of the total $490 billion
retail market in India. While the overall growth of retail is fueled by the 300 million
middle class population, the e-tailing part is growing owing to the massive adoption
of ecommerce among the millennials and generation Z.

Regionally, Asia-Pacific consistently exceeds the global average for adoption of all
online retailing options primarily because of the continued increases in mobile
adoption and broadband penetration, particularly in the developing regions. Indias etail market is pegged at almost $8 billion and is among one of the fastest growing
markets. Bigbasket.com, Indias largest player in the e-groceries segment has
recently raised $50 million from existing investors led by Bessemer Venture Partners.
The company plans to deploy the capital in expansion into new markets and
introducing new (and faster services). Bigbasket has earlier raised Rs 200 crores led
by Helion Ventures and Zodius Capital in September last year. YourStory spoke to
HariMenon, Co-Founder and CTO, Bigbasket to know more about the upcoming
plans and expected challenges.
New additions to the basket
Bigbasket is operational in seven cities (including six metros) currently and with fresh
funding, it plans to expand to two more metros and 50 tier two cities. The funds will
be used towards:

1.

Warehouses:The company is in the process of opening large warehouses

(approximately 100,000 square feet) in themetrosof Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai,
Pune, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Ahmedabad and Kolkata. These eight warehouses will
also cater to cities that fall within a 250-300 kmsto these metros. For example, the
Bangalore warehouse is serving Mysore at the moment, similarly Chennai can be a
feeder to Madurai, Trichy; Ahmedabad to Surat, Baroda; and Hyderabad to
Vijaywada, Vizag and Guntur. There will be a support network of 60 smaller
warehouses getting direct supply from the large warehouses.

2.

Expansion:Bigbasket will be launching in Kolkata and Ahmedabad by

October. By the year end(March 2016), Bigbasket aims to be present in 35 cities.
Hari says,

Even after these launches, we expect 60% of our revenues coming from
metros.
3.

One hour express deliveries: For emergency items, the company is

introducing an option of one hour express delivery using a two-wheeler network
of Delyver, the startup acquired in January 2015. Bigbasket is setting up dark stores
or small warehouses with 1000-2000 SKUs,for the same which will get direct feed
from the main warehouses.
Delyver co-founders are now a part of the management team of Bigbasket and the
rest of the team will be supporting the one hour express delivery feature.

Size of the basket

Hari Menon, Co-Founder & CEO of Bigbasket

Hari mentioned that Bigbasket is processing almost 20,000 orders per day. The 2000
member team has a 70 percent blue collar workforce. Hari believes that the recent
second line hires of the company including the head of merchandising, VP of
engineering and HR Director are well set to take the company to the next level.
While the revenues of the company in FY 2014-15 was 210 crores, Hari is expecting
the March 2016 revenues itself to be 200 crores($30M) exiting the fiscal year with a
run rate of $400 million. This growth is primarily fueled by the expansion into newer
cities, the companys aggressive marketing and subsequent customer acquisition.
Hari says,
Groceries being a regularly needed commodity, a customer purchases on an
average2.5 times ina month. We are trying to take this figure to 4 as it indicates
the stickiness of the customer to our platform. There are nearly 26 orders in a
basket.
Right now, payment for 50 percent of the orders is made online while the remaining
is done offline(cash on delivery). The platform also provides the option of using
Bigbasket mobile wallet(closed wallet) or PayU money for online buyers. According
to Hari, this ratio will soon change to 70:30(online:offline payments) by the year end.

The classic challenge!

The most common challenge for ecommerce companies has been hiring and
retaining talent. And it gets trickier when it comes to the delivery boys. Hari shares
his strategy,
Recruiting, training and retaining delivery boys has been little tricky for us. As
the catchment dries up, we now go to smaller cities to hire them and provide
them with affordable housing in the city of operations. This helps a lot in
retention.
Since Bigbasket deals with groceries which are mostly perishable, managing the
complex supply chain to reduce wastage is another big challenge. The current data
of transactions helps in predicting the orders and hence avoiding much wastage.
Of hypergrowth in hyperlocal and biggies
The entry and funding of hyperlocal delivery startups along with the growing interest
of some big nameshave generated a lot of buzz inthe e-groceries segment.
Gurgaon-basedPepperTap raised $10M earlier this year to expand to 10 cities by the
year end. Bigbaskets closest competitor Grofers had raised $35M in April at $115M
post money valuation. Paytmand Ola have announced their entries in the grocery
market with Zip and Ola Storerespectively while Amazon had launched Amazon
Kirana Now some time ago. Among the larger corporates, Reliance Direct Fresh and
Godrejs Nature Basket are selling groceries online. The latter acquired Mumbaibased Ekstop in the beginning of 2015. Bigbazaar and More Stores are still offline
and Other players in this segment include Gurgaon-based Satvakart, Mumbai-based
LocalBanya, Bengaluru-based Zopnow and Jiffstore andChandigarh-based Jugnoo.
Among all the players (apart from Reliance Direct Fresh & Godrej Nature Basket) in
the groceries segment, Bigbasket seems to be the only one going ahead with asset
heavy(inventory) model. Hari justifies his approach,

Its very difficult to work in this segment if you dont have the visibility to
inventory. You need to ensure that youre meeting large orders of customers.
Keeping inventory will further be important as we are launching the one hour
express delivery as it gets difficult to keep a check on quality control with less
time in hand(cant negotiate much).
The future, of acquisitions, profitability and next round of funding!
Hari had earlier shared Bigbaskets vision to become profitable by 2016 end. He now
says that that may be delayed by a few months with this round of funding. This is
due to the new businesses getting added. The company has revamped their
branding recently and also roped in Shahrukh Khan as their brand ambassador.
Bigbasket is looking at achieving the following targets in the next one year:
1.

Automation in warehouses.

2.

Scale the footprint to 35 cities with 60 dark stores.

3.

Raising $150 million. The company has already appointed Citibank(as its
investment bank) for the same.
The next round of funding may take Bigbaskets valuation to anywhere close to $1
billion. Though Hari is not too concerned about the valuation, hes clear about
continuing with his focus on the groceries segment(and kitchen care) and does not
intend to diversify the business much. After all, a $300 billion market is by no means
insignificant.

SOURCE http://yourstory.com/2015/09/bigbasket-growth-story/

INNOVATIVE RETAIL CONCEPTS PRIVATE LIMITED

U74130KA2010PTC052192

INNOVATIVE RETAIL CONCEPTS PRIVATE LIMITED is a private company

registered on 15/01/2010. The company has an authorized capital of Rs 2,01,00,000
and paid-up capital of Rs 2,01,00,000.
Its registered office is situated at No 7/1, 1st Floor, 1st Main Road, Off 100 Feet
Road, Domlur 2nd Stage, Indiranagar, Bangalore, Karnataka, India - 560071.
The status of company in the records of Registrar is active which means that it is
actively doing all its filing with the Registrar.
Company has currently 2 director and falls under the jurisdiction of Registrar of
Company-Bangalore.
BASIC DETAILS
Incorporation Date

Registration Number
052192

15/01/2010
Company Type
Private

Listing Type
Unlisted

Industry Category
Business Services

Company Nature
Company limited by shares

Company Sub Category

Indian Non-Government
Company

Registering Authority
Registrar of Company-Bangalore

CAPITAL DETAILS
Authorized Capital

Paid-up Capital
Rs. 2,01,00,000

Rs. 2,01,00,000
DIRECTORS & KEY PERSONS
DIN/DPIN/PA
N

Director Name

Appointment
Date

Designation

02404846

NAGARAJU KESARI

31/03/2014

Director

BALASUBRAMANYAM
05236356

SRINIVAS BHAT

22/03/2012

Director

VIEW OTHER DIRECTORSHIPS[+]

CONTACT DETAILS

EDIT

Registered Address
No 7/1, 1st Floor, 1st Main
Road, off 100 Feet Road,
Domlur 2nd Stage, Indiranagar
Bangalore
Karnataka
INDIA
560071

Telephone
--Not Available-Fax
--Not Available-Email Id
kbn@bigbasket.com
Website
--Not Available--

PROSECUTION DETAILS
Order Date

Officer Name

Court Name

Section

Status

No Prosecution Details found

OTHER MISCELLANEOUS INFO
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SOURE : http://www.companywiki.in/company/innovative-retail-concepts-privatelimited/u74130ka2010ptc052192

The big private-labels push will also entail expanding BigBaskets 40,000 sq. ft
Bengaluru warehouse to 75,000 sq. ft by August. Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint
Bengaluru: Online grocery store BigBasket will tie up with about 1,800 grocery
stores to sell its private-label products across categories such as vegetables, staples
and bakery in a move aimed at increasing revenue four-fold and improving
profitability this financial year.
The company sells fruits, vegetables, meat and bread under the brand
name Fresho and staples under the Popular andRoyal brands through 250 stores,
apart from its website. It aims to close 2015-16 with revenue of Rs.800 crore as
againstRs.210 the previous year.
Retailers do not manufacture private-label products. These are made by a third-party
manufacturer exclusively for a retailer.
BigBasket, which started operations in Bengaluru in December 2011, also plans to
expand its private-label portfolio; typically private-label products have gross margins
between a fifth to a third higher than other products. The company will launch its
coffee brand on 15 June, and follow with flavoured tea and cookies. Private-label
offerings account for about 35% of BigBaskets revenue.
BigBaskets CEO Hari Menon said his company will launch products in categories
that see more repeat purchases and where it can create a differentiation.
The big private-labels push will also entail expanding the companys 40,000 sq. ft
Bengaluru warehouse to 75,000 sq. ft by August.
According to retail advisory firm Technopak, Indians spend around $370 billion a
year on food and groceries. Experts say private labels seem to be made for ecommerce. Besides earning higher margins, online stores can also run promotions
on private brands as they earn more on such products, said Anand Ramanathan,
director at KPMG Advisory Services.
Still, not every company has the scale to run a successful private-label business. An
aggressive push on private labels may antagonize other suppliers and brands.
Until you stop selling all other brands and sell only private labels like a Marks &
Spencer does, it does not add much value in the early stages, said Harminder

Sahni, managing director of advisory firm Wazir Advisors. You also compete with
other suppliers on your platform and antagonize them.
BigBasket is present in six citiesBengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Delhi, Pune and
Mumbaiand will expand to 50 more by the end of this financial year. The 50 new
locations will be categorized into clusters, each comprising 5-6 cities around six
central locations. Products will be transported to the clusters every day from the
central locations.
Co-promoted by serial entrepreneurs K. Ganesh and his wife Meena Ganesh,
BigBasket is the most well-capitalized among all domestic online grocery stores. The
company has so far raised about Rs.370 crore from Helion Ventures, Zodius Capital,
Ascent Capital and LionRock Capital in a sector that has attracted more than Rs.750
crore from investors in the past 18 months.
Grofers, an app-based service, has raised more than Rs.270 crore in 2015
while ZopNow and PepperTap have raised Rs.62 crore each. The space is expected
to become even more competitive with taxi-hailing services Ola, which has raised
more than Rs.3,700 crore since October last year, launching a pilot for its grocery
business in early June.
SOURCE:
http://www.livemint.com/Companies/XU7BIkj5GDMQ9uqQkE9CLJ/BigBasket-to-tieup-with-1800-stores-in-privatelabel-push.html