Ascent invests $10m in Indian online grocery store

The Bangalore-based private equity firm's investment is also its first in a technology company in five years. Recently, Ascent, which has $600 million in assets under management, has focused more on infrastructure, purchasing stakes in the likes of GMR Energy, IVRCL Assets & Holdings and Karaikal Port.

BigBasket.com was set up by the team that founded India's first e-commerce site FabMart.com in 1999, and then went on to establish Fabmall-Trinethra, a chain of more than 200 grocery supermarkets in southern India. Ascent also backed Fabmall.

As part of the transaction, Raj Kondur, a director at the private equity firm, has joined the board of BigBasket.

The company has seen orders double every month since its launch. The latest round of funding will be used to increase capacity and improve service and merchandise selection. The company also plans to expand into five cities within the year.

"Grocery is one of the largest categories in retail but also one of the most challenging ones," said Hari Menon, CEO of BigBasket. "Significant experience in the grocery business is a must, complemented by experience in e-commerce, and in setting up and running a very large and complex supply chain organization."

Ascent's Kondur expects BigBasket to be a $160 billion opportunity, following the success of online grocery stores in other markets, notably Ocado and Tesco.com in the UK, Yihaodian in China and FreshDirect in the US.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Consumer
• Investments
• Consumer
• India
• Ascent Capital