Indian food delivery service Milkbasket has secured $7 million in funding led by Kalaari Capital with participation from BeeNext, a Japanese fund, and its existing investors Unilever Ventures and Blume Ventures.
Starting with milk and breakfast products, Milkbasket today supplies over 40,000 households in the city of Gurgaon. The company said it will use the funds for further innovations in supply chain efficiencies and to expand into other geographies.
The announcement follows an investment round earlier this year, which was led by Unilever Ventures.
Milkbasket was founded in 2015 in order to cater for the Indian habit of getting milk delivered at home every morning. Through the site, consumers’ orders made before midnight are delivered to their doors before 7am the following day. The firm claims to have a “customer retention rate of 95% and on-time deliveries of 99.9%”.
Anant Goel, Milkbasket CEO, said: “We are very excited to have Kalaari and BeeNext join us in the journey to crack the online grocery space in a sustainable manner. This funding will help us to continue investing in the three Ts that we hold close to our hearts – talent, technology and territory – and in achieving our vision to create the most convenient grocery fulfilment model for today’s busy households.”
Kalaari Capital managing director Vani Kola said: “Strong founding team, focus towards data-based decision making, operational rigor, and incessant focus on customer delight, backed by a large market opportunity in the grocery space, culminated into us leading a $7 million Series A round into Milkbasket.”
BeeNext founder Teruhide Sato added: “Our investment in Milkbasket provides us with meaningful participation in one of the fastest growing e-grocery markets globally. We are excited to partner with one of India’s best grocery delivery platforms and believe that this investment will accelerate their ability to build scale in India.”
“Three unique attributes of Milkbasket that impressed us were: a great founder with a solid team and great execution, a user-friendly service suitable for Indian local habits, and highly frequent consumer touch points. Milkbasket instigates a sense of community among users, and there is no doubt that they will become the daily habit of India in a few years.”
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