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An employee delivers groceries for BigBasket.com in Bengaluru, India. Photo: Hemant Mishra / Mint via Getty Images
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is helping fund India's largest online grocer, Bigbasket, with a $300 million dollar investment, reports Bloomberg. The company plans to utilize the funds for building farmer networks, warehouses, and delivery infrastructure in the more than two dozen cities it operates in.
Why it matters: India's current retail market is valued at more than $900 billion, with grocery shopping accounting for roughly $600 billion of that, Bigbasket co-founder and CEO Hari Menon told Bloomberg. But the expansion of grocery e-commerce in the country is hindered by the lack of refrigerated trucks, warehouses and fundamental logistics.
Background: Founded in December 2011, the Bangladesh-based company sells items ranging from spices to kitchen supplies. Bigbasket has caught the attention of several companies, and had been in talk with several other global retailers, including Amazon. and Walmart.