New Delhi: The Chinese Giant e-commerce Alibaba has recently sought its approval of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for acquiring stakes in Big Basket-India’s online grocery platform.
According to the reports, Alibaba along with Paytm were in discussions earlier this year to acquire a minority stake in Big Basket for nearly USD 200 million.
Alibaba has already invested in Indian ecommerce Paytm and now plans to acquire stakes in BigBasket to compete against Amazon.
A recent notice from CCI has said, “The proposed combination relates to the acquisition and purchase of shares of Supermarket Grocery Supplies (SGS – the entity that runs BigBasket) by Alibaba Singapore.”
However, the notice did not reveal any further details about the proposed investments.
India’s e-commerce grocery BigBasket has operations across India in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Ahmedabad, Patna, Kolkata, Jaipur, Vijayawada, Indore, Punjab and Lucknow.
The company who has reportedly raised over USD 200 million from its investors which included Abraaj Group, Bessemer Venture Partners, Growthstory, Helion Venture Partners, IFC and Sands Capital is expected to grow into 2.7 billion market in the next two years.
Alibaba to acquire Stakes in BigBasket
