BeeNext, Unilever Ventures & Blume Ventures have also participated

New Delhi, 22nd May, 2018: Milkbasket, India’s first & largest daily grocery delivery service, has just announced the successful closure of $7 million in Series A funding led by Kalaari Capital with participation from Singapore based BeeNext and its existing investors, Unilever Ventures and Blume Ventures.

Started in early 2015, Milkbasket revolutionized the online grocery space by introducing an early morning, contactless, micro-delivery model akin to the prevalent newspaper and milk supply chain models in India. Starting with milk and breakfast products, Milkbasket today fulfills the entire grocery needs of a household with a reach of over 40,000 households in 180+ communities in Gurgaon.

Commenting on the investment, Vani Kola, MD at Kalaari Capital 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 $7M Series A round into Milkbasket.”

The company is going to use these funds for further innovations in supply chain efficiencies and last mile logistics, creation of unique customer propositions and delivering exceptional customer experience, and expand into other geographies while penetrating deeper in existing communities.

Teruhide Sato, founder of BeeNext, said, “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.”

Founded by INSEAD alumnus Anant Goel with his co-founders Ashish Goel, Anurag Jain and Yatish Talvadia, Milkbasket operates with a full stack in-house supply chain model, achieved positive unit economics within first six months of inception and have introduced industry’s first flexi ordering till midnight, delivery by 7:00 am, no minimum order and free delivery model.

Speaking on the funding, Anant Goel, CEO at Milkbasket 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 3Ts 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.”

About Milkbasket

Launched in early 2015, Milkbasket is India’s first and largest grocery delivery service. Built on the unique Indian habit of getting fresh milk delivered at home every morning, Milkbasket (accessible on milkbasket.com, iOS and Android) is today fulfilling the entire grocery needs of a household everyday before 7:00 a.m. To enable frequent and frictionless buying, Milkbasket has innovated micro delivery, flexi ordering and contactless delivery – all a first in the ecommerce industry – and favourites of Milkbasket customers.

With a daily reach to over 40,000 households, Milkbasket’s vision is to become the default mom & pop shop for over a million households in the next 3-5 years. Having achieved positive unit economics within the first six months of the launch, Milkbasket is the most capital efficient model in the online grocery space as compared to its domestic and global peers.

Founded by INSEAD alumnus Anant Goel with his co-founders Ashish Goel, Anurag Jain and Yatish Talvadia, Milkbasket delivers only in select areas while expanding its network with new launches every week. With an order fulfillment rate of 99%, customer retention rate of 95% and on-time deliveries of 99.9%, Milkbasket has redefined the industry benchmarks and enjoys envious customer loyalty.

Milkbasket has raised $10 mn in funding from Kalaari Capital, BeeNext, Unilever Ventures, Blume Ventures and Lenovo Capital (LCIH). Previously it raised a total of $1M in seed and angel investment from a clutch of Chinese VCs and domestic angels including Milkbasket customers.

~ Raises ₹200 crores from IIFL, Accel and others

Bangalore, July 18, 2016: BlueStone.com, India’s leading online destination for fine jewellery, has raised a fresh round of funding led by IIFL and Accel along with Kalaari Capital, RB Investments and IvyCap Ventures. The ₹200 crore fund will enable the company to grow the category and strengthen its leadership position.

Globally, the online jewellery segment is witnessing exponential growth and is expected to capture 10% of total jewellery sales by 2020. The Indian precious jewellery market which is currently valued at $60 billion is projected to cross the $110 billion mark in the next five years with online contribution estimated to be in the $2 – 3 billion range.

Currently, the online jewellery segment in India contributes less than 0.5% but is growing at 5X YoY as compared to traditional jewellery players. BlueStone.com has planned major investments in expanding design and manufacturing capacity as well as marketing initiatives to grow the online jewellery segment.

According to Gaurav Singh Kushwaha, Founder and CEO, BlueStone.com, “BlueStone.com pioneered the category of online fine jewellery in 2011 and in a short span of five years has captured majority market share.We are now targeting a four-fold increase in revenues to touch Rs 1000 crore by 2018 andwe want to achieve this goal in a profitable and sustainable manner. The new round of investments underscores the success of the company’s vertically integrated full stack online first business model and the enormous untapped potential in the jewellery category.”

Prashanth Prakash, Partner, Accel Partners said, “BlueStone.com has posted strong, sustained growth and set several benchmarks in the online jewellery retail industry in India like leveraging technologies such as 3D Visual Merchanding to omni-channel initiative of Home Try-On. We are committed to extend our association with BlueStone.com as we see immense potential in the brand.”

Speaking on the latest fund raise, Vani Kola, Managing Director, Kalaari Capital said, “BlueStone.com has a high quality team and has grown rapidly over the last year. With the strong foundation and this capital infusion, we believe BlueStone.com is well positioned to build a large online jewellery brand in India.”

BlueStone.com offersover 5,000 unique jewellery designs and plans to scale to 30,000 designs in the next three years. With design, manufacturing and logistics capabilities built in-house, the brand is able to quickly expand its manufacturing capabilities and customizeits design offerings as per market trends.

Headquartered in Bangalore, BlueStone.com had earlier raised funds from Accel Partners, KalaariCapital, Dragoneer Investment Group, IvyCap Ventures and Saama Capital. Mr Ratan Tata and Ms Meena Ganesh (CEO of Portea) have also invested in the company. With the latest fund raise, the total funding received by BlueStone.com is $60 million.

About BlueStone.com:

Established in 2011, BlueStone.com aims at revolutionizing precious jewellery and lifestyle segment in India with a firm focus on craftsmanship, quality and user experience. The platform features more than 5000 unique designs from a wide collection of themes to suit every occasion and ships to over 20,000 pin codes across the country. These designs are crafted to perfection with utmost care and are available 24/7 with a 30 Day Money Back Policy and Lifetime Exchanges. Shoppers also get the ease of experiencing luxury shopping from the comfort of their home with a unique Home Try-on facility available in 16 cities.