Grofers delivers a funding at the door of the unicorn club

• Grofers has raised over $200 million from Softbank Vision Fund.
  
• In 2019 itself, three Indian startups have already entered the unicorn club, Grofers could soon become the fourth.
  
• Over the last two years, Grofers has grown by a staggering 800% to achieve an annual revenue of $400 million.
  

Grocery retail startup Grofers has today raised over $200 million from Softbank Vision Fund. With this funding, its reported valuation is set to be almost $1 billion – just a few steps away from being a unicorn.

The series F round also saw participation from new investor, KTB, and along with existing investors – Tiger Global Management and Sequoia Capital.

The formerly reclusive Indian unicorn club now has many more members in it. In 2019, three Indian startups have already entered this club, which is exclusive for startups valued at and over $1 billion.

Grofers could be the second grocery startup to garner this valuation. Its competitor BigBasket hit this number in March 2019.

Staggering Growth

According to the company's statement, over the last two years, Grofers’ has grown by a staggering 800%, to achieve an annual revenue of $400 million.

“We are building Grofers for the millions of Indians who cannot buy groceries at low prices due to multiple middlemen and absence of large aggregators,” said Albinder Dhindsa, Co-Founder and CEO of Grofers in a statement.

“This latest investment will help scale the company to ensure many more customers can access best quality products at best prices,” he added.

Grofers plans to use new funds to expand to new markets across the country. The funding will help the startup build its supply chain network, warehousing infrastructure and private label products, and ensure a steady increase in product range.

The investors are banking on growth in the Indian grocery segment which is expected to touch $869 billion by 2023. In March, BigBasket raised funding from its existing investor Alibaba along with South Korean firm, Mirae Asset.

Meanwhile, yet another Indian unicorn Swiggy, too announced its foray into grocery segment, with Swiggy stores. Corporate giant Reliance Industries which owns and operates Reliance Retail, is keen on joining the bandwagon as it has acquired Mumbai-based hyperlocal service, Grab.


See Also:

Indian grocery startup Bigbasket enters the unicorn club with a reported $2.3 billion valuation

Online grocers are back in business in India with billions more to burn – and that may be good for consumers