Bigbasket Secures Venture Debt from Trifecta Capital
Trifecta Capital has provided Rs. 100 crores of venture debt to SuperMarket Grocery Supplies (SGSPL) that owns and operates the online food and grocery portal bigbasket.com. This is the largest venture debt transaction in the country, and a sign of growing attraction to meet their capital needs from new age businesses. The funds will be used to meet the working capital and capex requirements of the Company including setting up new warehouses, strengthening the cold chain, setting up facilities for reprocessing of fruits & vegetables and for scaling-up of its supply chain for the recently launched milk subscription business - BB Daily and its specialty vending machine business - BB Instant.
SGSPL, founded in December 2011 by five seasoned entrepreneurs, is one of the largest online food and grocery players in India with operations spread across 26 cities. The company pioneered online B2B grocery in India by successfully cultivating both the supply and demand sides of the nascent market. bigbasket offers the largest online assortment with 19,000 plus products and 3,000+ brands across fruits, vegetables, staples, meat, beverages and personal care categories. The company has a unique, deeply penetrated model for sourcing fresh fruits and vegetables directly from farmers.
It is backed by marquee investors like Bessemer Venture Partners, Helion Ventures, Ascent Capital, Sands Capital, Alibaba, CDC and Mirae.
“We have a clearly identified use case for debt. We are present in 26 cities and continue to optimise our supply chain. A significant part of our business is fresh fruits and vegetables, the bulk of which is sourced directly from farms. It is crucial that we maintain the quality right up to the last mile. Funding such capex requirements is best done through debt.” said Hari Menon, Co-Founder, SuperMarket Grocery Supplies.
“We had taken Venture Debt from Trifecta Capital in 2017 and realised that it was a more optimal form of financing for working capital and capex. Venture Debt not only reduces dilution for all shareholders, it reduces cost of capital, improves ROE and expands runway. We recently raised $ 150 million from marquee investors and decided to supplement the equity capital with additional Venture Debt. Given our relationship with Trifecta Capital and their understanding of our business, they were the obvious choice. As we build a credit history with Trifecta Capital, we hope to be able to leverage their Bank/Non-Bank relationships for our future fund requirements”, said Vipul Parekh, CFO & Co-Founder, SuperMarket Grocery Supplies
“bigbasket is the largest online grocery brand in the country. The five founders – Hari Menon, V Sudhakar, Vipul Parekh, VS Ramesh and Abhinay Choudhari - have significant offline and online retail experience. They have leveraged economies of scale, technology, supply chain and logistics, backward integration and product mix to create a viable, high growth business that is delivering significant value to its customers. They are backed by very high quality and deep pocketed investors. We are excited to continue to be able to support the growth needs of this newest Indian Unicorn”, said Nilesh Kothari, Co-Founder, Trifecta Capital.
