Grofers denies merger talks with BigBasket

Online grocery firm Grofers has denied holding merger talks with larger rival BigBasket, saying “just one meeting about business” last year between the two had been blown out of proportion.

Grofers founder and Chief Executive Alibinder Dhindsa said the company is focusing on growing its business as the online grocery segment is still at the nascent stage. Softbank-backed Grofers and BigBasket had reportedly been in talks for a potential merger that would have created one of the largest online grocery players, competing with the likes of Amazon. “It was not (merger) talks, there was just one meeting about how the business is going and it just got blown out of proportion because of different reasons,” Dhindsa told PTI.

Emphasising that they never had talks regarding the merger, he said: “Right now, business is going good for us, we are going at a pretty good pace. So, why would we want to do any of that?” Grofers, which has so far raised US$ 160 million, is looking to take its revenue to about Rs 1,000 crore in 2017- 18, betting big on investments and technology advancement in its warehouses and targeting new customers. In 2016-17, it had reported a revenue of Rs 235 …read more