INDIA – India’s leading grocery and milk delivery service, Milkbasket has raised US$10.5 million additional funding in a round led by Unilever Ventures, a venture capital and private equity arm of Unilever, reports ET Retail.
Others participating in the round include Mayfield India, Kalaari Capital, and Blume Ventures and a few Indian family offices.
The funding provides a competitive edge in portfolio as well as operational expansion against rivals such as BigBasketDaily, Doodhwala, and DailyNinja.
Founded in 2015, Milkbasket enables customers to order from a limited selection of grocery items and milk throughout the day until midnight, and their packages are delivered to their homes the next morning before 7am.
It uses its own fleet and an app that allows buyers to place recurring orders for essential items.
“Having cracked the code of sustainable online grocery model by creating world’s first daily micro delivery supply chain, Milkbasket is proud to be serving over 100,000 households today,” said Anant Goel, co-founder and CEO of Milkbasket.
“While the industry is witnessing a number of players adopting our model, this funding, our largest fund infusion till date, is a testament to our robust execution, the team and continued trust of our investors in the growth of Milkbasket.
“We are steadily and surely moving towards our goal of achieving $1 billion ARR in 2021.
“Together with investing in talent and geographic expansion, Milkbasket continues to invest in customer-centric innovation, and this funding will help us focus on all the three areas to build a national market leader in online grocery.”
The micro-delivery startup which is present in four cities across India says that 70% of its revenues come from non-milk grocery products and has seen a growth rate of close to 20% month-on-month.
Last year, Milkbasket raised US$7 million in a Series A round of funding led by Kalaari Capital and earlier in the year had secured another funding from Unilever.
The company is estimated to have raised close to US$26 million so far.
It is facing stiff competition from Bengaluru-based DailyNinja, which raised $4.5 million in funding in October 2018.
