Grofers, India’s leading online grocery retailer,
is raising $200mn+ in Series F funding. The SoftBank Vision Fund led the round with
participation from new investor, KTB, and existing investors, Tiger Global
Management and Sequoia Capital. This represents the largest primary financing
round in the online grocery sector in India.
India is one of the world’s fastest growing economies, projected to become the
third largest by 2025.1 The food and grocery market is one of the largest commerce
categories in India, and is estimated to reach $869bn in sales in 2023, a 70 percent
increase from its 2018 forecast.2
Grofers is growing rapidly in a fertile market, where increased smartphone
penetration, the launch of 4G networks, and increasing consumer wealth are
combining to accelerate e-commerce adoption.3
Over the last two years, Grofers’ technology platform and focus on core markets
has helped it grow a staggering 800% to achieve annual revenue of $400mn. These
growth, revenue and funding milestones are evidence of an unprecedented
turnaround.
The company’s innovative and focused business model has enabled it to tap fast
growing urban communities in middle India that represent a massive market
opportunity; India is projected to add 416mn urban city dwellers by 2050.4 Today,
Grofers is the market leader in India’s three largest cities: Delhi NCR, Mumbai and
Kolkata.
“We are building Grofers for the millions of Indians who cannot buy groceries at
low prices due to multiple middlemen and the absence of large aggregators,” said
Albinder Dhindsa, Co-Founder and CEO of Grofers. “This latest investment will help
scale the company to ensure many more customers can access the best quality
products at the best prices.”
“Grofers is the leader in making India’s grocery industry more efficient, affordable
and accessible to the mass market urban customer,” said Vikas J. Parekh, Partner
at SoftBank Investment Advisers. “The company has iterated its way to great
success with regards to its technology platform, extensive partner network and
efficient supply chain. We are thrilled to partner with them to drive further
innovation in the online grocery category for the mass market.”
Scott Shleifer, Partner at Tiger Global Management said, “We are pleased to
continue supporting Grofers, which is helping transform the retail grocery market
in India. The company’s strong team and innovative approach has put Grofers on a
solid path to gain share in this large, growing market.”
With the additional funding, Grofers willseek to expand into new markets, bringing
its services closer to hundreds of millions of Indian consumers. Grofers will also
continue to build out its supply chain, warehousing infrastructure and private label
product offerings, ensuring a steadily increasing range of products for customers.