Paytm Mall To Acquire Minority Stake In Grocery Business BigBasket

One97 Communications owned, online market space Paytm Mall has started due diligence of the accounts and the operations of online grocery retailer BigBasket, for a $ 200 million minority stake.
 
BigBasket has been looking for investments since the start of the year and has attracted interests from several investors including ecommerce giant Amazon. However, according to reports, talks with the retail giant have been paused for the past couple of weeks.
 
High profile investors including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Tencent Holdings Ltd., and Fosum International Ltd., have also shown interest in the online grocery retail startup. But, the various fundraising efforts were delayed due to valuation differences.
 
In 2016, BigBasket was valued at $ 450 million when it last raised capital in March. They are now seeking for a pre money valuation of at least $ 550 million. Investment firm Morgan Stanley will be advising the grocery retailer in these talks. They registered about Rs. 1400 crores revenue in the financial year 2017 and have also started 60 minute express delivery to take on rival online grocery retailer, Groffers.  
 
Paytm Mall also recently raised $ 200 million from Alibaba Group and SAIF Partners in March, in an effort to compete against Amazon India and Flipkart. According to sources, this deal will help Paytm Mall strengthen its online to offline strategy and will help them take on their rivals, The Economic Times reported.
 
Amazon recently got the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion’s approval to invest $ 500 million in the food processing sector, which will allow them to directly sell groceries and other food products online.
 
Paytm has been targeting categories such as movie and travel ticketing to encourage repeat purchases through its online payments and mobile wallet business. Paytm Mall hosts 14,000 sellers for millions of products across various categories. A majority stake in the food processing sector will allow them to grow in the online retail sector giving them an edge over the other ecommerce giants.