Tata Group to buy the majority stake worth $1 billion from Big Basket.

By Ishank Katyal

Online grocery service start-up Big Basket is in talks to sell its majority stake at $1 billion to Indian conglomerate Tata Group. Said a report by Economic Times.

Tata has already been planning to launch a “super app”, one that will combine up all its consumer services, according to some media reports, they will compete against their peers like Reliance Industries and Amazon who have become a big giants in e- commerce industry.

Meanwhile Big Basket, a Bangalore based company is trying to compete with Walmart Inc. owned Flipkart and Amazon’s essential service since COVID- 19 pandemic has begun as consumers are preferring to order essentials more from e- commerce websites than stepping out of their house.

According to Economic Times report, China based e- commerce business Alibaba Group, which holds 26 percent shares of Big Basket sells its entire shareholding in the company.

The Tata Group and Big Basket did not respond to Reuters’ request for the comments.

“While the talks have been ongoing for some time, it is still work- in- progress as far as the specifics go. It may eventually not lead to a transaction at all,” the newspaper cited one of the sources.

According to the Mint Newspaper on Wednesday, Tata Group is all set to buy Big Basket’s controlling stake for $500 to $700 million. Earlier, Big Basket was looking for a raise of $200 million for the fresh funding round and was in talks with the Tata Group.