Grofers, an online grocery delivery service backed by Zomato, has rebranded itself as Blinkit to indicate its focus on the quick commerce or 10-minute grocery delivery space. Grofers is an online grocery and lifestyle products marketplace that connects consumers with local retailers.
Grofers’ rebranding suggests its motive to step up into the increased competition in the quick commerce space. The news comes as the company is in discussions with existing investor Zomato to raise $500 million in a new round of funding.
Albinder Dhindsa, Co-founder and CEO, Grofers, said, “We learned a lot as Grofers, and all our learnings, our team, and our infrastructure is being repurposed to pivot to something with staggering product-market fit – quick commerce. Today, we are surging ahead as a new company, and we have a new mission statement – instant commerce indistinguishable from magic. And we will no longer be doing this as Grofers – we will be doing it as Blinkit.”
According to Dhindsa, the company processes 1.25 lakh orders per day.
“We need people who can think like founders (and not like employees). If you are reading this, and you want to join a company which will trust you and empower you to change the world in 10 minutes,” Dhindsa further added.
He also stated that in today’s fast-paced world, 10-minute delivery is not only possible but necessary in order for people to have time for more important things.
Dhindsa said in a blog on December 13, that “Once upon a time, a few months ago, we started on a journey to build the future of commerce with 10-minute delivery of most of the stuff our customers need in their daily lives. Today, we already process over a million orders a week, across 12 cities in India. And this is just a start.”
Grofers had recently attained unicorn status or $1 billion in valuation, after raising over $120 million from food aggregator Zomato Ltd. Grofers has witnessed a sharp surge in its popularity in the past year as several Indian states enforced strict lockdown restrictions to contain the spread of the virus.
The rebranding happens at a time when most of the rivals are hoarding capital to compete in the cash-guzzling sector. Zepto, which recently raised $60 million in its first institutional round of funding, is already in talks for its next big round.
Online food delivery platform Swiggy recently said that it will invest $700 million in its express grocery delivery service Instamart as it looks to double down on non-food delivery categories.