Online grocery player BigBasket, which is owned and run by SuperMarket Grocery Supplies Pvt. Ltd has raised Rs 100 crore of venture debt from Trifecta Capital. of fruits and vegetables 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 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.
“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 Pvt. Ltd.
SuperMarket Grocery last took Venture Debt from Trifecta Capital in 2017. Vipul Parekh, CFO & Co-Founder says that they 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,” he added.
Speaking on the venture debt, Nilesh Kothari, Co-Founder, Trifecta Capital says, “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.”