Milkbasket raises $7 M Series A funding led by Kalaari Capital
Gurugram-based Milkbasket has raised $7 million Series A funding led by Kalaari Capital. The round also saw participation from Singapore-based BeeNext and existing investors, Blume Ventures and Unilever Ventures.
This is the second fund raise for the company this year. Earlier in January, the company had raised a pre-series A funding of $3 million led by Unilever Ventures. Founded in 2015, Milkbasket is a micro-delivery platform founded by Anant Goel, Ashish Goel, Anurag Jain, and Yatish Talvadia.
Anant says that this current fund raise will help the team to continue to invest in technology, talent and territory and aim to be the most convenient grocery fulfilment model for all households
The team adds that the funding will be used 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 into existing communities.
The platform offers an early morning, contactless, micro-delivery model, which follows a newspaper and milk supply chain models. Starting with milk and breakfast products, Milkbasket now focusses on complete delivery. The team claims to touch over 40,000 households across over 180 communities in Gurugram.
Commenting on the investment, Vani Kola, MD at Kalaari Capital said in a press release, “Strong founding team, focus towards data-based decision making, operational rigour, 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.”
Milkbasket operates with a full stack in-house supply chain model, achieved positive unit economics within first six months of inception and has introduced the industry’s first flexi ordering till midnight, delivery by 7 am, no minimum order and free delivery model.
Supr Daily, Daily Ninja, and MrNeeds are the other players in the micro-delivery space. Teruhide Sato, founder of BeeNext, said their investment in Milkbasket provides them with meaningful participation in one of the fastest growing e-grocery markets globally.
“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 year,” he said.