Here’s why BigBasket is killing it in India while the others struggle

This week, online grocery delivery platform BigBasket raised a fresh round of funding worth US$150 million led by UAE-based Abraaj Group, even as rivals struggle to get a grip on what is expected to be a multi-billion dollar business.

BigBasket, which rivals Grofers, PepperTap, and others, will use the newly raised money to ramp up its express delivery segment, get into more cities, and increase its product offering range, the Abraaj Group said in a statement.

Ola, Paytm, and Flipkart all shut their grocery delivery businesses, while Grofers and Peppertap have scaled back.

Food and grocery sales account for more than two-thirds of all retail sales, according to consultants Technopak. The overall figure is expected to hit US$686 billion by 2020.

It is easy to see why the online grocery delivery has been courted by everyone from Flipkart to Ola, to smaller companies like Grofers.

Few, however, have managed to crack the grocery delivery model as well as BigBasket has.

Ola, Paytm, and Flipkart shut their grocery delivery businesses in March, June last year, and February respectively. Amazon launched its own service in Bangalore in February through a separate app called Amazon Now. It hasn’t yet taken the industry by storm.

Sector specialists like Grofers and Peppertap too have cut back operations.

This is all while BigBasket raised money to expand in more markets.

The team has a long history of working in the offline grocery industry before they joined hands to go online.

“Abraaj will leverage its strong experience in the consumer sector to enable BigBasket to further enhance its strong domestic position,” Omar Lodhi, head of Asia for The Abraaj Group, said.

Delivering a winner