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Well recognized grocery delivery startup Grofers have now reportedly entered the unicorn club after raising around $120 million from the IPO-bound food delivery platform Zomato. On Tuesday, the duo has reportedly signed a deal, it valued Grofers at a little over a billion dollar. However, a unicorn is a private company which valued at or more than $1 billion.
Moreover, Grofers refused to comment on the speculation. The company mentioned, “Our focus at present is to do our best to serve consumers at this time of the country’s need; while we continue to build technology that empowers the grocery ecosystem to make products more affordable and accessible for millions of Indian households.”
However, Zomato reportedly tried to conquer Grofers last year for expanding its presence in the groceries delivery segment but somehow the talk fell through.
As per the stock broking house Motilal Oswal, the online grocery segment has enhanced by 30 times over the last seven to eight years to reach the $3 billion.
The report heighlighted that India has about 154 million transacting households. Of which, 130 million are already making use of online grocery solutions, creating an addressable market of $293 billion.
The development comes only a week after Grofers’ cofounder Saurabh Kumar announced his exit from the company. He will continue to be a shareholder and a board member in the eight year-old company.
Kumar had invaded Grofers in 2013 along with Albinder Dhindsa. The duo currently owns less than 8% stake in the company, as per the Moneycontrol report, with SoftBank being a majority stakeholder.
Till now Grofer has raised almost $662 million across equity and debt rounds. Its investors include Sequoia Capital India, Trifecta Capital Advisors, SoftBank Vision Fund, Abu Dhabi Capital Group as well as Bennett Coleman and Co ltd.
