Gurugram-based micro-delivery startup Milkbasket said it has raised Rs 15 crore ($2.15 million at the current exchange rate) in venture debt from InnoVen Capital.
The development comes just weeks after Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal’s BAC Acquisitions scrapped a proposal to invest Rs 20 crore ($2.86 million then) in Milkbasket. The two parties had said the decision was mutual.
Anant Goel, co-founder and chief executive officer of Milkbasket, said in a statement that the company will use the fresh capital from InnoVen to invest in geographical expansion, new technological advancement and hiring.
The venture debt firm's investment is part of Gurugram-based Milkbasket’s Series B round in which the startup recently raised $10.5 million led by existing investor Unilever Ventures, the venture capital arm of consumer goods giant Unilever Plc.
Mayfield India, Kalaari Capital, and Blume Ventures and a few Indian family offices had also participated in the fund round. In December last year, it raised $7 million in an extended Series A round led by Mayfield. This was preceded by a $7 million Series A investment led by Kalaari Capital in May last year.
Milkbasket, which is operated by Aaidea Solutions Pvt. Ltd, was founded in 2015 by Anant Goel, Ashish Goel, Anurag Jain and Yatish Talvadia. With a full-stack supply chain from sourcing to last-mile delivery, Milkbasket claims to serve over 100,000 households and fulfills all their household needs across fruits and vegetables, daily needs as well as other fast-moving consumer goods categories. The company says it fulfills the entire grocery needs of a household every day before 7 am.
Unlike BigBasket, Grofers, Amazon and Flipkart -- the bigger players in the online grocery delivery market -- Milkbasket positions itself as the online version of local mom-and-pop grocery stores, only with more stock-keeping units. The firm currently operates in Gurugram, Noida, Ghaziabad and Bengaluru.
In March this year, the company acquired Noida-based online grocery venture Veggie India for an undisclosed amount.
InnoVen
The venture debt firm received an additional $200 million (Rs 1,400 crore) funding commitment from shareholders Temasek Holdings and United Overseas Bank Ltd last month.
The fresh commitment to InnoVen was good news for Indian startups that have been resorting to venture debt as alternative funding at a certain stage.
InnoVen Capital invested about Rs 600 crore across 36 companies in 2018, registering a 28% increase in the funding amount it has deployed.
It has provided venture debt to varied companies including Swiggy, Capillary Technologies, Rentomojo, Belong, Blackbuck, Pepperfry, NestAway, ShopClues and Mswipe.
In a recent interaction with VCCircle, InnoVen Capital CEO Ashish Sharma said that new bets will still form the majority of its investments this year even as it expects good pace on follow-on investments as well.
