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 is today fulfilling the entire grocery needs of a household everyday before 7:00 a.m. To enable frequent and friction-less buying, Milkbasket has innovated micro delivery, flexi-ordering and contactless delivery – all a first in the e-commerce industry – and favorites 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. For more information, please visit MilkBasket