Tag: Grofers

Zomato confirms investment in Grofers, will soon launch grocery section on app

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Zomato Ltd, on July 8, confirmed its $100 million investment in Grofers to build the strategy around grocery. The food delivery startup will soon launch a grocery section on its app, it told CNBC-TV18.

“Online grocery is a large opportunity in India,” Zomato Ltd, which is backed by Jack Ma’s Ant Group, said.

The food delivery platform, however, clarified that they don’t have anything defined on Grofers in terms of a full buy-out.

The announcement comes days ahead of the launch of Zomato’s initial public offering (IPO) on July 14. The offer will close on July 16 and will be the largest after the SBI Cards and Payments System’s offer worth Rs 10,355 crore launched in March 2020.

Speaking about the IPO, Zomato said, “We thought it was good time to go public. We are an Indian homegrown brand, we have customer love here, made sense to go for IPO in India.”

Gaurav Gupta, the co-founder of the food delivery giant, said they will invest more in customer acquisition. “Customer love should help a little bit in terms of retail participation,” he said.

Zomato said its post-money valuation at the upper band will be Rs 64,365 crore. Gupta said, “The valuation is always about what the current strength of the business is and what the future potential of the business could be.”

He hailed the benchmarks for internet companies that are building out growth businesses for the future. “I am sure people have triangulated that to see what seems to be the right value for Zomato,” he said.

Going forward, Zomato’s growth drivers will be both organic and inorganic as Gupta says they’re not hell-bent on any particular channel of growth and would want to do whatever makes sense.

“We will continue to optimize both for growth and to better our economics as we go along like we have done in the last two-three years,” Gupta said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Grofers turns unicorn with $120 million from Zomato, Tiger Global

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

IPO-bound foodtech company Zomato and Tiger Global have invested $120 million into e-grocery player Grofers, turning it into a unicorn with a valuation of over $1 billion.

Zomato is expected to seek CCI approval soon for the deal. Zomato could also look at a possible acquisition of Grofers post its IPO, which is expected in a few months.

Grofers CEO Albinder Dhindsa had said in a June 21 blog post that ‘next round of funding is secure’ while announcing that the company would give 33 percent hikes to its tech teams.

“After coming out of the second wave, and at a point where our next funding round is secure, I think it is time to kickstart a lot of initiatives that I have been waiting for the right time to begin,” Dhindsa wrote in the post.

“The entire tech team gets a no-ifs-and-buts 33 percent increase in salary starting July (i.e. if your annual salary was Rs 30 lakhs, it will now be Rs 40 lakhs). Depending on how much impact each of you have created over the last year, there will also be a hefty ESOP allocation coming your way which will be communicated to you in the next few weeks,’ he added.

Grofers’ co-founder Saurabh Kumar had earlier this month announced he was moving out of the company, though he would continue to stay on the board.

Tiger Global is a common investor in Zomato and Grofers, and as of July 2020, held a nearly 20 percent stake in Grofers, as per data from Tracxn. Softbank, which is a large shareholder in Grofers, is not expected to participate in this funding round.

Grofers’ larger competitor BigBasket recently got bought out by the Tata Group, which pumped in over $1 billion into the company to add the e-grocery business to its Tata Digital arm.

For Zomato, adding e-grocery to its cart would be crucial as rival Swiggy is pushing aggressively on its hyper-local as well as grocery delivery services, while e-commerce players Amazon and Flipkart are also investing heavily into high-frequency grocery deliveries.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Grofers co-founder Saurabh Kumar exits company

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Grofers co-founder Saurabh Kumar has decided to leave the company but will continue to remain a Board member and shareholder in the online grocery delivery platform, according to CEO Albinder Dhindsa.

The development comes at a time when the SoftBank-backed company is looking at launching an initial public offering (IPO).

Dhindsa, in a tweet on Friday, said he spent the last 8 years building Grofers with Kumar and that “SK is moving on to other challenges”. “So, while SK will no longer be involved in day-to-day responsibilities at Grofers, he will continue to be a board member and a shareholder at the company. This is the end of an era for Grofers, and I know all of us will absolutely miss having him around everyday,” Dhindsa said in a blogpost.

Kumar shared an e-mail he had written to employees announcing his exit. His next destination is not known. “After almost 8 years of building Grofers, I have decided to call it time on my current Grofers journey…I have been reflecting on my life and personal ambitions for some time. And my decision to step away is the outcome of that. I want to wander again,” he said.

Grofers has seen strong growth in business amid the pandemic as containment measures introduced millions to the convenience of online shopping, and prompted seasoned online shoppers to buy more, including everyday grocery items.

Social distancing compulsions, massive smartphone base and reliable broadband have galvanised e-commerce uptake beyond metros, deep into smaller cities and towns.

Last year, Dhindsa had said the company has advanced its plan to launch an IPO by the end of 2021 as it continues to focus on enhancing customer experience and strengthening its capabilities in the segment.

Grofers competes against players like Amazon, Flipkart, Alibaba-backed Bigbasket, and billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s upstart JioMart in this space. India’s $950 billion retail markets is predicted to grow to $1.3 trillion by 2025-26.

Of this, the ecommerce business is estimated at around $78 billion and forecast to cross $100 billion by 2025. Grocery is the latest category where e-commerce firms are now slugging it out.

Reports suggest that Grofers is in talks for a $100-120 million fundraise.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

COVID-19: Grofers to cover vaccination cost for employees, families, contractual staff

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Online grocery platform Grofers on Tuesday said it will cover the cost of COVID-19 vaccination for its employees, their family members as well as the company’s contractual staff.

The company aims to cover vaccination cost for 25,000 people across 38 cities, it added.

Grofers will cover the vaccination cost for its employees, their family members (including, parents, spouse, and two children) and the company’s contractual workforce, a statement said.

Also, the company will reimburse the vaccination cost for those who will administer the vaccine through their personal arrangements.

With the government recently appealing to people above 45 years to take the vaccine, the company will begin covering costs for its employees and their family members of this age group.

Post the government guidelines allowing the vaccination for remaining age groups, Grofers will ensure coverage of costs for the remaining workforce and their family members, the statement said.

Extra sick leave will also be granted towards the vaccine drive for employees to manage any post-vaccination symptoms.

“Our team has been there with us through these challenging times and by ensuring their vaccination cost, we want to ensure their safety and health, along with the well-being of their loved ones and dependents… Serving our customers and community at large has been the core of our business, and during the pandemic, it became even more critical as we are an essential service provider,” Ankush Arora, HR Head at Grofers, said.

ADP India has also announced that it will sponsor the COVID-19 vaccines for all its employees.

As a part of this initiative, ADP will cover the cost of the total vaccine for over 50,000 beneficiaries in India spread across Hyderabad, Pune and Chennai along with over 10,000 beneficiaries in the Philippines.

Under this ‘COVID Vaccine Special Benefit’, ADP associates and their immediate dependents will be reimbursed the cost of both doses of the COVID-19 vaccinations. Associates and dependents who are already vaccinated can also avail this benefit.

“In the 21 years of our presence in India and our journey from 102 to 10,000-plus employees, this initiative will be the biggest commitment towards our people that we will fulfill,” Vipul Singh, Divisional Vice President and Head HR at ADP India, said.

Several companies, including Flipkart, Infosys, Accenture, Capgemini, Cognizant, Mobile Premier League, Reliance Industries, TVS Motor Company, ReNew Power, Mindtree and Sify Technologies, have committed to covering vaccine costs for their employees and their family members.

People above 60 years of age and those above 45 years with co-morbidities are being immunised in the second phase of the nationwide vaccination that started on March 1.

Covaxin and Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covishield are the two vaccines that are being administered in the country. Covaxin has been indigenously developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

A total of 6,11,13,354 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered till Tuesday 10 am. As many as 81,74,916 healthcare workers got the first dose of vaccine and 51,88,747 the second dose. As many as 89,44,742 frontline workers got the first dose and 37,11,221 the second dose.

From April 1, people above the age of 45 years would be eligible for vaccination.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Grofers onboards 60 campus hires from premier institutions across India

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Online grocery delivery platform Grofers on Tuesday said it has inducted a batch of 60 people from premier B-schools and engineering colleges in India, including IIT Delhi and IIM Bangalore. Grofers has honoured all offers to campuses and has already initiated the virtual onboarding processes of the new hires, a statement said.

The addition of young talent from the campus hiring will foster innovation and creative thinking within the organisation, it added. Some of the B-schools and engineering colleges inducted by the company are IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, Management Development Institute, Mudra Institute of Communication, IIT Delhi, IIT Madras, IIT Roorkee, IIT BHU.

Other institutes include National Institute of Industrial Engineering, IIIT Allahabad, Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, Vellore Institute of Technology, Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA), and Symbiosis Nashik, among others, it said. “At Grofers, we work in an ever-changing and challenging environment that requires a self-motivated workforce who can quickly adapt to the changes and present superior quality work. Over the last few months, our team members have shown extreme valour and resilience by serving the country in these challenging times, and we are delighted to have new team members joining our mission,” Grofers Head HR Ankush Arora said.

Grofers already employs over 23,000 team members across the country. The company said it has hired delivery and warehouse staff from industries that have been deeply impacted by the crisis in the last few months. An increasing number of people are adopting online grocery shopping amid the pandemic. Grofers said it has acquired over 18 lakh new users since the start of the lockdown.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Retail sector post-COVID-19 lockdown: E-grocers gain pace, footfall in D-Mart slips

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Consumer behaviour dynamics have changed drastically in the past 4 months. The retail sector has become the primary focus, mainly due to the high demand for goods. However, there’s a noticeable shift in the consumers’ behaviour.

E-commerce retail platforms are slowly inching towards gains while industry bellwether like D-Mart is suffering with falling footfalls.

HDFC Securities in its research note said, “E-grocers are scaling up well and are likely to win share from the top-up format in their respective catchments. D-Mart’s footfall pain is likely to spill-over in Q2FY21. However, it remains well-capitalized to take the impact on its chain.”

The stock has plunged 23 percent from its high (on February 13) to current levels. At 3:10 pm, the stock traded 6.58 percent lower to Rs 2,005.10 a share on the NSE.

Retail e-commerce portals and apps are mostly popular in the  metro cities. In fact, the recognition of these companies have grown more than ever, as even small-sized e-grocers are now changing their business model to match consumer needs.

Agreeing to the above statement, Snapdeal co-founder and CEO Kunal Bahl on Thursday said the e-commerce sector did see a V-shaped recovery post lockdown, with categories such as fashion witnessing an increased demand despite the pandemic.

“The April-May period was challenging. As an industry and company we did not know when the recovery will happen. But the industry was surprised with a V-shaped recovery,” Bahl told CNBC TV 18.

Bahl also added the Snapdeal made profit at the company level during the pandemic.

‘Sell’ recommendation on D-Mart

According to the brokerage, the retailer’s 67 percent of stores are based in the most- affected districts, which will cause stress in the near-future on their cost of retailing and respective cash cover for fixed cost absorption.

While D-Mart continues to be the market leader and well-covered with the recent fundraise, it’s profits will still be affected. Currently, it is managing discounts well to restrict the bottom-line pain, added the brokerage.

Is COVID-19 e-grocers’ ‘demonetisation moment’?

Even before the lockdown, major e-grocers were scaling well– both at the gross and operational level. As consumers now grapple with the pandemic, there are 3 noticeable consumer purchasing behaviours:

1. Large basket sizes are driven by the propensity to move towards more stock-up behaviour with customers, said the brokerage.

2. The salience of discounts and national brands have come off, momentarily, added the report.

3. Also, consumers’ preference for lesser grocery trips to avoid the exposure of the virus is playing well for the e-grocer services.

The brokerage further noted that the stickiness to the platform once sampled is likely to be high (once the consumer is in Grofers-fold, the e-grocer manages to maintain a 70/60 percent monthly and annual retention rate). This helps the e-grocer scale faster and more profitably.

In fact, Grofers intends to hit EBITDA break-even in the next 6-9 months, the report added.

In fact, there have been many startups that have joined the large e-grocers’, and have partnered with local kirana stores to enter the retail business. StoreSe, FreshDirect, Near.store, Housejoy Mart, Modern Bazaar and many more.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Staying asset-light helped these tech start-ups weather the COVID-19 lockdown

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The COVID-19 lockdown has enabled e-commerce players in the grocery-delivery space to get noticed. And it’s no surprise that brands like BigBasket have Grofers capitalised on the newfound market of customers who prefer isolating themselves while ordering supplies to their doorstep.

While at first glance, the BigBasket and Grofers model works well during a lockdown, smaller companies have added an extra edge to operations to enjoy more success amid the crisis.

Bengaluru-based online grocery shopping platform Store.Se, for instance, has recorded a 20 percent week-on-week growth in sales since it launched operations in March 2020. Mumbai-based tech retail start-up Near.store launched delivery operations at the same time and recorded a five-fold growth in business in just four weeks.

Popular fast food kiosk, Wow Momo launched Wow Momo Essentials at the same time, to deliver groceries and balance out unsustainable F&B operations, and carries out 2,500 orders per day. The one common thread that runs through each of these success stories is quite apparent: These companies have stayed asset-light during the lockdown.

Store.se’s asset-light approach

“Our core differentiator has been our asset-light model since the idea was to give wings to existing retailers,” says Store.Se Co-Founder and CEO, Abhinav Pathak, adding, “We have managed to make margins of 1 to 1.2 percent during the lockdown on the back of keeping things simple.”

Store.Se has overseen demand and logistics of kirana stores during the lockdown, especially when footfalls at these stores began seeing a sharp decline. “Footfalls at these stores were down by 40 to 50 percent,” Pathak adds, “In order to make up for the poor footfalls, these stores began delivering products, and that’s where we came in.”

Designing a dashboard for retailers to view orders and schedule deliveries was the first innovation that Store.Se came up with. While overseeing the tech, the company itself decided that it won’t do deliveries itself, but rope in partners to get the job done for a small extra charge. This meant it could set aside a decent margin for itself. The company is planning to expand to a hundred Indian cities over the next six months.

Is the asset-light model sustainable?

Its success notwithstanding, there are questions that Store.Se now faces, on whether the model is sustainable in the Unlock phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, the early stages of the Lockdown saw a 20 percent rise in week-on-week business, while this number contracted to between 5 and 10 percent since the third week of May as lockdown restrictions began easing out. The company, though, has a backup plan.

“We have always been a focused retail tech company,” says Pathak, “If the logistics arm of our business doesn’t scale up as fast as we are expecting, we are in a position to pivot into working on a B-to-B business model where we can design e-commerce solutions for each of these stores and equip them with it, to run their own operations.”

Near.store’s Kirana Outreach

Around the same time as Store.Se, Mumbai-based Near.store also launched operations. The first order of business for Near.store was to sign up as many kirana stores as possible on its platform. The portal signed up 130 stores, with 11 of these already starting operations on the platform. “We should have the remainder come on our platform by the end of this week or early next week,” says Near.store CEO, Ashish Kumar.

Staying asset-light — the company has spent hardly anything on customer acquisition costs — has helped Near.store rake in the profits. Revenues of the company grew five-fold in just four weeks of operations. As is the case with Store.Se, the company has enjoyed considerable success by keeping things simple.

Asset-light formula#1: don’t do deliveries

Consciously staying away from doing deliveries and outsourcing it to third-parties has enabled the company take a lot more of the profit pie for itself. “It was quite tempting to do deliveries ourselves during the lockdown,” Ashish says, “But the fact remains that the margins we make does not allow for these costs. Outsourcing was the only option.”

Staying asset-light meant that Near.store roped in the likes of Shiprocket and LalaMove to run deliveries. “Everyone who does business during the lockdown has the capability to do delivery, but companies overseeing deliveries run a cost of Rs 50 to 60 per order, and end up keeping just Rs 10 or 15 in terms of a margin per order,” says Ashish. “We take anywhere between two to 15 percent cut depending on the merchant we are dealing with, and have remained unit-economics positive,” he adds.

Near.store’s next order of business is to identify prominent kirana stores and take them on board the digital bandwagon. “We still see growth in this space, and our kirana base continues to expand,” say Ashish, “We are getting at least 80 to 90 leads per day — in terms of the number of kirana stores who want to gonline.”

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Zomato, Grofers deny merger talks as e-grocery enters top gear

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Gurugram-based food delivery platform Zomato and e-grocer Grofers on Tuesday refuted reports that they are in acquisition or merger talks after reports surfaced that Zomato may acquire Grofers for nearly USD 750 million.

Flush with funds, Zomato currently partnered Grofers for the delivery of essential items – along with other FMCG and grocery stores — to meet the surge in demand amid social distancing and nationwide lockdown that has now been increased till May 3.

In a statement shared with IANS, Zomato said that the company has partnered with Grofers, along with other FMCG companies, local groceries stores and modern retail chains, to pilot its grocery delivery service.

“We are not aware of any other conversation with Grofers,” a Zomato spokesperson added.

A Grofers spokesperson added: “The news on the merger is a pure speculation and completely untrue. Grofers is the country’s biggest online grocery retailer and has been growing at 2x every six months”.

After initial hiccups, Zomato has started grocery delivery in over 80 Indian cities with supplying essentials like aata, dal, milk, vegetables and items and for this, it has partnered existing players like Grofers.

According to Prabhu Ram, Head-Industry Intelligence Group, CyberMedia Research (CMR), companies are looking at creative pivots to stay relevant by pursuing new growth opportunities on the back of the new coronavirus pandemic.

“Expanding into near adjacencies is a given for companies, such as Zomato. From Zomato’s perspective, a partnership or acquisition of Grofers would provide it a good leg-up in its competition with Swiggy to win big in the grocery delivery segment,” Ram told IANS.

Online food and grocery retail is expected to touch USD 10.5 billion by 2023, according to a recent report by Bengaluru-based market consulting firm Redseer.

Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal who is bullish on online delivery of essential items, has said that their delivery network in the country is only second to India Post.

“We we are putting in every effort to make sure that we put it to good use to serve the community. We’d like to thank the government authorities, grocery stores, FMCG companies & other start-ups that have come forward to partner with us and support the community in this endeavor,” Goyal said recently.

Zomato is currently valued at nearly USD 3.2 billion while Grofers’ valuation is around USD 650 million. Menlo Park, California-based Sequoia Capital is a common investor in both the delivery platforms.

Zomato in January acquired Uber’s Food delivery business in India – UberEats — in an all-stock deal for nearly Rs 2,500 crore. Uber has 9.99 percent stake in the Goyal-led food delivery platform.

Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, the largest investor in Grofers, is also likely to pump in around USD 100 million in Zomato.

Media reports said last week that Zomato has raised USD 5 million from British investment manager Baillie Gifford’s Pacific Horizon Investment Trust. Zomato earlier raised USD 150 million from existing investor Ant Financial, an affiliate of Alibaba.

The company has also launched the ‘Feed the Daily Wager’ initiative to support and ensure meals for workers at construction sites, shops, restaurants, delivery staff, and local transport systems who earn on daily basis.

As part of this campaign, the food delivery giant is providing ration kits to the daily wager communities that are currently unable to support their family’s food requirement.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Grofers to hire 5,000 people over two weeks to ramp up capacity

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Online grocery platform Grofers is looking at hiring 5,000 employees to ramp up its capacity to meet the spike in orders amid the nationwide lockdown.

The company has also partnered with resident welfare associations (RWAs) of over 100 societies across metros to make essentials available to a larger number of people amid the 21-day lockdown imposed to contain the spread of COVID-19.

Outlining the steps taken by the company over the last three weeks, its co-founder and CEO Albinder Dhindsa said the Grofers app is seeing over 1.5 million people trying to order daily.

“Every day our app is seeing over 1.5 million people trying to order. Given the constraints on how many people we can cater to, we are only able to serve 1 out of 8 customers today…(we) are working on adding more capacity to make this work for more people,” he said in the company blog dated April 7.

E-commerce companies have struggled to deliver orders after the 21-day lockdown was imposed on March 24.

Even though the government allowed delivery of essential goods including food, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment through e-commerce platforms, players faced hiccups initially.

The surge in orders also disrupted operations for these companies. Players have now started resuming operations across various cities, clearing pending orders before accepting new ones.

“…we have resumed operations in 24 cities and our warehouses are working at 70 per cent strength…An additional 2,000 people were hired from industries which were deeply impacted by the current crisis such as textile, manufacturing, and services and would have otherwise faced income losses,” Dhindsa said.

He added that the company now plans to hire 5,000 more over the next two weeks.

Grofers’ rival, bigbasket had last week said it is looking at hiring 10,000 people for its warehouses and last-mile delivery.

Dhindsa said over the last three weeks, the company has delivered essential groceries to over one million households in 22 cities.

He pointed out that organised grocery in India is really small.

“Kiranas are (rightfully) king as they provide customised service at a very local level and constitute 95 percent of Indian grocery retail… Online grocery is only about 0.2 per cent of the overall retail market. I think at the end of this crisis we will probably reach 0.5 per cent, but that is still an insignificant share,” he said.

In a separate announcement on Wednesday, Grofers said under its partnership with RAWs, society group orders will receive priority slots on its Grofers platform versus other areas of the city.

Once it receives the order, Grofers will bundle the order area wise and deliver within 2-3 days. The company is also abiding by the rules and ensuring the maintenance of proper hygiene and sanitation in its facilities and vehicles.

The company has also collaborated with MyGate, a security and community management solution, to ensure zero-touch deliveries via the latter’s Leave At Gate feature.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Coronavirus: Rapido ties up with essential suppliers to aid last-mile deliveries

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Online bike taxi aggregator Rapido on Monday announced a partnership with essential suppliers such as Bigbasket, Big Baazar and Spencer’s Retail for aiding last-mile deliveries in more than 90 cities as the ongoing lockdown restricts essential supplies for millions of Indians.

The Bengaluru-based company said it is also in talks with others like Grofers, Dunzo and FreshtoHome to extend its support to help them deliver essential orders.

“We, at Rapido, are committed to accelerate our existing Rapido-Delivery services to provide for essential supplies during the ongoing lockdown due to COVID-19,” the company said in a statement.

“Seventy per cent of our fleet of captains (driver-partners) are on-ground in order to facilitate supplies,” it added.

Online delivery platforms are struggling to meet the surge in demand as there are few delivery boys at their service.

“While Rapido will be the platform to felicitate these deliveries, we will not be charging any commission from the Captains,” said the bike app.

Founded in 2015, Rapido operates in more than 95 cities across the country.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow