With the help of its accelerator programme BB Accelerate, the online grocery startup BigBasket, is planning to invest in early-stage consumer brands that sells on its platform, reported Inc42.
BigBasket said that BB Accelerate programme has already included Delight Foods, Kapiva and Vahdam Teas as its parts.
While, Hari Menon, co-founder at BigBasket, revealed that the BB Accelerator at present has around 20-25 such small brands on board, which were selected and nurtured by BigBasket’s executives for a year.
Menon also added that these brands get privileges such as monthly meeting with executives of various companies, consumer data analysis and express delivery of their products.
Bigbasket was started by Abhinay Choudhari, Hari Menon, Vipul Parekh, VS Ramesh, and VS Sudhakar in 2011. The company claims to be one of the largest online food and grocery players in India with operations spread across 26 cities.
It offers an online assortment with 19,000 plus products and 3,000+ brands across fruits, vegetables, staples, meat, beverages, and personal care categories.
The company is backed by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and it is operated by SuperMarket Grocery Supplies Pvt. Ltd. It sources fresh fruits and vegetables directly from farmers.
Menon further said that while the scale of investment is uncertain at this moment, it would depend on the capital cost of the brands and the nature of its operations.
The company has plans to expand the business further, but the company does not want to undertake a private-brands-only approach, added Menon.
Presently, BigBasket develops over 35 per cent of its total sales from private labels, and looking forward to scale this up to 45 per cent with new FMCG products.
Furthermore, the Indian online grocery segment is expected to surge at a CAGR of 55 per cent during 2016- 2021, as per the report of TechSci Research.
Beside BigBasket, some of the other platforms in the similar space include Grofers, Nature’s Basket, jiffstore, OrderRabbit, Grocerkey, tokri, etc.