Grocery start-up Bigbasket gets USD 14.5 million in venture debt

Bengaluru: Bigbasket, valued at about USD 1 billion, will receive USD 14.5 million in debt from local venture capital firm Trifecta Capital, the online grocery start-up said on Monday.

The deal comes months after Bigbasket closed USD 150 million in funding from a group of investors, including South Korea-based Mirae-Naver and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group.

Bigbasket, which competes with Walmart Inc-owned Flipkart and Amazon.com Inc, will use the fresh funds to set up warehouses and boost its cold chain, the company said in a statement.

Vipul Parekh, co-founder of Bigbasket’s parent group, noted that the venture debt allows the company to limit dilution for its shareholders, but did not provide details on the nature of the debt.