As per some reports, Grofers is in merger talks with Alibaba-backed hyperlocal grocery delivery company Big Basket

India-based online super market Grofers has secured INR 400 crore (US$61.6 million) in a fresh funding round, led by existing investor and Japanese internet conglomerate SoftBank Group.

The funding round also saw participation from other existing backer Tiger Global and new investor Apoletto Asia, which is backed by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner.

With this, Grofers’s total funds raised to date has touched US$226.5 million.

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With the latest investment, Grofers will continue to invest in building private labels and supply chain improvements. A significant amount of investment will go towards building infrastructure and technology and efficient supply chain management to achieve deeper penetration in existing Grofers cities.

Albinder Dhindsa, Co-founder and CEO, Grofers, said: “We took some hard decisions to fix parts of the business that were not scaling well. Our efforts have clearly contributed in making sure we have a clear path to profitability as well as the largest market share in the online grocery segment; having grown four-fold in the last one year for monthly sales in excess of INR 100 crore (US$15.4 million).”

Founded in 2013 by by Saurabh Kumar and Dhindsa, Grofers allows consumers to order products across categories like grocery, fruits & vegetables, beauty & wellness, household care, baby care, pet care, meats & seafood and get them delivered to their doorstep. It has operations in  13 cities — Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kanpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Noida, Mumbai and Pune.

According to Grofers, it currently clocks an average of 25,000 orders a day with an order value of INR 1,400 (US$22).

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Grofers has previously raised US$166.5 million from investors like SoftBank, Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global.

In October, Grofers’s CFO Ashneer Grover stepped down, amidst its ongoing merger talks with online grocery retailer BigBasket.com.

With Indian customers getting more familiar with online grocery shopping, the overall online grocery market is expected to move up the curve and touch US$1 billion by this year compared to US$600 million in 2016.

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