Milkbasket refuses to bow down to discounts – aims to hit $100 million by March

• In an interview with Business Insider, Anant Goel, CEO and co-founder, Milkbasket talks about why he doesn’t want to offer discounts to his customers.
  
• The company is averaging 75,000 orders a day with over 2,250,000 in a month.
  
• It aims to hit $100 million run rate by the end of the current financial year.

Grocery delivery startup Milkbasket has its head in the game. It is forecasting to hit $100 million in revenue by the end of the current financial year.

Today, the Indian grocery space is crowded with multiple players and newly turned unicorns like BigBasket, soonicorns like Grofers. Even food delivery unicorns like Swiggy too are entering the sector.

Milkbasket insists on growing without discounts

However, while all of these new and old startups are trying to offer discounts and faster delivery options to lure consumers, Milkbasket is adamant. It doesn’t believe in discounts and has only a single slot delivery at 7 am in the morning.

“That’s how you build a business, not by burning money. For any B2C business, you can always spoil the customer, but can you make money while doing it? Is it sustainable? We have always tried to strike the balance,” Anant Goel, CEO and co-founder, Milkbasket told Business Insider.

So, the four-year-old startup has built a loyal consumer base, without having to give in to the new age trends. It serves 1.5 lakh households across 5 cities (Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad and Bengaluru). The company is averaging 75,000 orders in a day with over 2,250,000 in a month.

“We now aim to hit $100 million run rate by the end of the current financial year, we are currently at $60 million,” said Goel.

Investors aid Milkbasket’s growth story

It has also been a good year for Milkbasket. There was a possible funding from Sachin Bansal’s BACQ Acquisitions. However Milkbasket and Bansal’s firm had issued a joint statement they weren’t going ahead with it.

Later, it closed its series B round with $12.7 million. The series B investment includes $10.5 million led by Unilever Ventures and participation from Mayfield India, Kalaari Capital, and Blume Ventures and few Indian family offices and Innoven Capital.

And Goel credits it all to doing things differently.

“Lots of competition has come in, which was not there earlier or were smaller till last year. Competition in new shapes and forms with big money, chasing us and our customers,” Goel said with a laugh and added, “But we are sure about our model – a sustainable supply chain that can deliver groceries to you.”

Busting the myth

Goel also busts a myth for us. Contrary to popular belief, Milkbasket has always been into groceries and not just milk. But its name makes people think otherwise. However, the name too has a direct connect to their business model.

“When we started grocery in 2015, there were about 200 startups in the space. We asked customers what they want from online grocery startups and they all said discounts. But we are not here to give away discounts. Milkbasket the name came about because milk is a commodity for which you don’t ask discounts, instead you pay more to get it delivered to your house and you are happy to do so,” he said.