Bangalore based online grocer BigBasket has acquired hyperlocal delivery startup Delyver in a cash and stock deal in a bid to strengthen its delivery network in all 50 cities. This will allow it to compete with a slew of nimble rivals. BigBasket will use the Delyver fleet to deliver orders within 90 minutes. Grofers and Pepper Tap are the biggest upcoming competitors for BigBasket.
NCR and Grofers have raised more than $45 million. Pepper Tap has raised more than $10 million. They will retain the brand name and use their two-wheeler convoy to do hyperlocal deliveries across all cities. Company executives declined to reveal the value of the transaction between the two start-ups which are both backed by serial entrepreneur and investor Krishnan Ganesh.
Krishnan Ganesh backed Delvyer was founded in 2010 by IIM Lucknow graduates Afsal Salu, Praful Thachery and Reebu Varghese, Delyver connects offline retailers in a neighborhood with customers from the same neighborhood. In other words, Delyver is a neighborhood marketplace which claims to deliver of products within one hour.
BigBasket was founded by VS Sudhakar, Hari Menon, Vipul Parekh, VS Ramesh and Abhinay Choudhari. BigBasket is present in Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Pune and is planning to enter Chennai and Delhi in the coming months. The venture began in 2011 after the founding team sold their first venture Fabmall to Aditya Birla Group in 2006. BigBasket has received over Rs 300 crore of funding via Bessemer Venture Partners, Helion Venture Partners and Zodius Capital.
It was valued at Rs 1,400 crore when it last raised funds in January. In 2012, the company had raised $10 million from Ascent Capital and earlier this year secured funding from Lion Rock capital, a Singapore based fund floated by former Goldman Sachs banker Hari Kumar. It is believed to be planning a fresh fund raise of $15-16 million to expand its operation to cover more cities.
