Feb 1, 2018

India's biggest online grocer lands $300 million investment

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.

Go deeper

Rebecca Falconer, Orion Rummler, Marisa Fernandez

U.S. coronavirus updates: Confirmed cases surpass 200,000

Data: The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins; Map: Andrew Witherspoon/Axios

Positive cases of the coronavirus passed 213,000 on Wednesday — nearly twice as many as Italy — as more state governors issued stay-at-home orders for Americans to curb infection.

The state of play: Trump administration officials are anonymously sounding the alarm that America's emergency stockpile of personal protective equipment is running dangerously low, the Washington Post reports.

Go deeperUpdated 4 mins ago - Health

Axios

Coronavirus dashboard

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

Global: Total confirmed cases as of 7 p.m. ET: 932,605 — Total deaths: 46,809 — Total recoveries: 193,177 — Map.
U.S.: Total confirmed cases as of 7 p.m. ET: 213,372 — Total deaths: 4,757 — Total recoveries: 8,474 — Map.
Business updates: Very small businesses are bearing the brunt of the coronavirus job crisis.
World update: Spain’s confirmed cases surpassed 100,000, and the nation saw its biggest daily death toll so far. More than 500 people were reported dead within the last 24 hours in the U.K., per Johns Hopkins.
State updates: Florida and Pennsylvania are the latest states to issue stay-at-home orders — Michigan has more than 9,000 confirmed cases, an increase of 1,200 and 78 new deaths in 24 hours.
Stock market updates: Stocks closed more than 4% lower on Wednesday, continuing a volatile stretch for the stock market amid the coronavirus outbreak.
What should I do? Answers about the virus from Axios experts — What to know about social distancing — Q&A: Minimizing your coronavirus risk.
Other resources: CDC on how to avoid the virus, what to do if you get it.

Subscribe to Mike Allen's Axios AM to follow our coronavirus coverage each morning from your inbox.

Keep ReadingUpdated 2 hours ago - Politics & Policy

Axios

World coronavirus updates: Spain's health care system overloaded

Data: The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins, the CDC, and China's Health Ministry. Note: China numbers are for the mainland only and U.S. numbers include repatriated citizens and confirmed plus presumptive cases from the CDC

Two planes with protective equipment arrived to restock Spain’s overloaded public health system on Wednesday as confirmed cases surpassed 100,000 and the nation saw its biggest death toll so far, Reuters reports.

The big picture: COVID-19 cases surged past 900,000 and the global death toll surpassed 45,000 early Wednesday, per Johns Hopkins data. Italy has reported more than 12,000 deaths.

Go deeperUpdated 3 hours ago - Health