Tata Group Buying Majority Stake In Bigbasket

[Anta Assamey]

Indian multinational conglomerate, Tata Group signs with Alibaba-backed online grocery startup BigBasket on the dotted line to become the new owner of the company. It is reported that Tata group will buy a 68% stake in BigBasket for about Rs 9,500 crore ($1.31 billion).

After the whopping $16bn Flipkart-Walmart deal in 2018, this deal would soon come as the largest M&A in India’s startup ecosystem. While Tata is yet to make an official announcement on this, both Tata group and BigBasket are now in the process of seeking all the requisite approvals.

The Tata’s investment into the BigBasket has simultaneously given full exit to Alibaba and a few others. Jack Ma, Chinese business magnate hold 27.58 per cent stake in BigBasket. But, with the spike in online sales during covid times, Tata strategize to make stronghold on the e-commerce market. Also, Tatas will get access to BigBasket’s massive userbase and can leverage it for cross-selling, giving a strong competition to big e-commerce companies like Amazon and Flipkart.