New Delhi, Dec 7 (PTI) Alibaba will pump in up to USD 300million in online grocery player, BigBasket, according toindustry sources.
The deal, which is expected to be announced in the nextfew weeks, will give BigBasket more muscle to compete againstrivals like Grofers and e-tailing giant Amazon, they said.
The sources did not wish to be identified as thediscussions are private.
BigBasket and Alibaba did not respond to emails.
In November, the Chinese e-commerce major had soughtapproval of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) foracquiring stake in BigBasket.
Investing in BigBasket would help Alibaba add more muscleto take on US-based rival Amazon, while for Paytm, the movewould further strengthen its play in the Indian e-commercespace.
Amazon India has received government's approval for itsproposed USD 500 million for retail in food sector. It is alsoramping up its business in the segment with Amazon Pantry andAmazon Now.
BigBasket has operations in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune,Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Ahmedabad, Patna, Kolkata, Jaipur,Vijayawada, Indore, Punjab and Lucknow.
The company has raised over $200 million from investorsincluding Abraaj Group, Bessemer Venture Partners,Growthstory, Helion Venture Partners, IFC and Sands Capital.
With people becoming comfortable buying even milk andbread online, the online grocery segment is projected towitness a strong growth over the next few years in India.
According to a report by Franchise India, the onlinegrocery market is expected to be Rs 2.7 billion market by2018-19. PTI SRSBT.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.