Milkbasket, the grocery and milk delivery startup, recently raised $7 million in a series-A funding round led by Kalaari Capital. This funding round also saw the participation of existing investors Unilever Ventures and Blume Ventures and the arrival of new investor Beenext Ventures.
The milk and grocery delivery space has seen several investments in recent times with startups such as Daily Ninja and Doodhwala raising funds. Earlier this year, Milkbasket raised $3 million from investment arm of consumer packaged goods company, Unilever.
This latest influx of capital means that the milk and delivery startup has so far raised about $11 million. CEO Anant Goel announced that the funds raised will strengthen the startup’s technology, reach and abilities.
Milkbasket currently serves about 40,000 homes in Gurugram and looks to expand operations in newer cities in the coming 6-12 months. However, CEO Anant Goel did not mention which cities he will foray.
Milkbasket saw the day in 2015 by INSEAD alumnus Anant Goel and co-founders Ashish Goel, Anurag Jain and Yatish Talvadia. The company reported Rs 35 crore in revenues for fiscal year 2018.
Milkbasket operates differently from competitors Doodhwala and DailyNinja, as it does not offer any subscription-based model, catering 80% of its operations from customers that pay a fixed, early-morning delivery. The Gurugram-based startup offers additional products apart from milk. Indeed, it also supplies household items through its own storage and supply chain.
“Our investment in Milkbasket provides us with meaningful participation in one of the fastest growing eGrocery markets globally,” said Teruhide Sato, founder of BeeNext in the statement announcing the deal.
“A 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-miilion series-A round into Milkbasket,” said investor Vani Kola from Kalaari Capital in the statement.
The online grocery market is currently headed by BigBasket, which owns 37-40% of a market estimated to be worth $1 billion and estimated to be worth $4-5 billion by 2020, growing at a CAGR of 60-70%, according to a study by RedSeer. Additionally, Amazon India and Flipkart are adjusting resources, and analytics to step in the lucrative market. Amazon India recently announced the addition of separate warehouses to cater their incoming grocery business. Flipkart already launched a grocery delivery service in Bengaluru.