Blinkit
Type of business | Private |
---|---|
Type of site | Online shopping |
Founded | December 2013 |
Headquarters | |
Area served | India |
Founder(s) |
|
Key people |
|
Industry | E-commerce |
Services | Online grocer |
Revenue | ₹2,289 crore (US$270 million) (FY 2020)[2] |
Net income | ₹−1,181 crore (US$−140 million) (FY 2020)[2] |
Employees | 2000+ (2021) [3] |
Parent | Grofers International Pvt Ltd |
URL | blinkit |
Registration | Required |
Current status | Online |
Blinkit (formerly Grofers) is an Indian online grocery delivery service.[4] It was founded in December 2013 and is based out of Gurugram, India.[5][6]
Customers of the company use a mobile application to order groceries, essentials and more online. Blinkit's employees then secure the items from their warehouse and deliver the items to the consumer within 10 minutes.[7] By November of 2021, the company was delivering 1.25 lakhs order every day[8]. Blinkit currently operates in more than 30 cities in India. As of 2021, the company has raised about US$630 million from investors including SoftBank, Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital.[9][10][11]
History
Blinkit (formerly Grofers) was founded in December 2013 by Albinder Dhindsa and Saurabh Kumar.[12] Having met each other while working for Cambridge Systematics during the late 2000s, they teamed up to enter the grocery delivery space. Their goal was to solve the problems (both on customer as well as merchant end) associated with the unorganized nature of the sector.[13] The startup piloted in Delhi NCR before reaching other cities in India.
Services
Blinkit (formerly Grofers) primarily delivers groceries, fresh fruits and vegetables, mobiles and accessories, kitchenware, books, home and office needs, bakery items, pet care, baby care and personal care products, electronics, flowers, etc.[14]
After playing a significant role in savings-driven online shopping for seven years[15], Blinkit (formerly Grofers) introduced express grocery delivery in India, by building dark stores across cities. In July 2021, the company reported delivering over 7000 groceries in 15 minutes in Gurugram.[16] A month later, in August 2021, it introduced 10-minute delivery in the top-12 cities, after completing over 20,000 under-15-minute deliveries per day across 10 cities.[17]
Controversy
In the last week of August, there was an online controversy regarding the safety of delivery partners.[18] Blinkit's Founder and CEO Albinder Dhindsa clarified with a Twitter post – highlighting the mechanism behind express delivery along with a stat that there has been zero accidents.[19]
Rebranding
On December 13, 2021, Grofers[20] changed its brand name to Blinkit[21] in line with its vision to embrace quick-commerce. In a company blogpost, Albinder Dhindsa explained that with Blinkit, the organization aims to aggressively push for "instant commerce indistinguishable from magic"[22] in the near future.
Funding rounds
Source:[23]
Transaction Name | Number of Investors | Fund Raised |
Series A | 1 | US$500K |
Series B | 2 | US$10M |
Series C | 2 | US$36.5M |
Series D | 5 | US$120M |
Series E | 3 | US$58.6M |
Series F | 7 | US$264M |
See also
References
- ^ "Grofers shifts base to Singapore". The Times of India. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
- ^ a b Vardhan, Jai; Tyagi, Gaurav (6 May 2021). "Exclusive: Decoding Grofers' actual financial numbers in FY20". Entrackr. Retrieved 29 October 2021.
- ^ "Grofers profile", Craft, retrieved 13 August 2019
- ^ Shrivastava, Aditi; Chanchani, Madhav (13 July 2016). "After a year of rapid growth, Grofers aiming to achieve operational break-even by year end". The Economic Times. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
- ^ Sen, Sunmy (23 May 2016). "It's Grofers vs BigBasket in the grocery delivery app war". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
- ^ "Grofers has had a good run so far, aims at operational break-even by year end". Business Insider. 13 July 2016. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
- ^ "10 minute delivery". Business Today. 23 August 2021. Retrieved 26 July 2017.
- ^ "We Are Delivering 1.25 Lakh Orders Every Day: Albinder Dhindsa Of Grofers". Moneycontrol. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
- ^ Shu, Catherine (5 January 2016). "Indian Hyperlocal Delivery Startup Grofers Pulls Out Of 9 Cities". TechCrunch. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
- ^ Ganguly, Paloma (26 November 2015). "Delivering groceries, Grofers bags big bucks from SoftBank". Tech in Asia. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
- ^ Saligrama, Anirudh (15 August 2016). "How Grofers Is Battling Legal Notice That Was Served By Students". TechStory. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
- ^ "Grofers To Raise Over $55 Mn From SoftBank". Inc42. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
- ^ Ankita (8 February 2016). "[EXCLUSIVE] "We started with a room and couple of people", Grofers Lets Us In On Its Clockworks". HungryForever Food Blog. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
- ^ "Albinder Dhindsa". Yo! Success. 10 July 2015. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
- ^ "Explained: The q-commerce model, how your order is delivered in minutes". The Indian Express. 13 December 2021. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
- ^ "Grofers Forays Into Instant Delivery, Delivers To 7,000 Households Within 15 Mins". Moneycontrol. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
- ^ Bhalla, Tarush (23 August 2021). "Online grocer Grofers sets sights on under 10-minute deliveries". mint. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
- ^ "Grofers co-founder defends 10-min delivery service". YourStory.com. 29 August 2021. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "https://twitter.com/albinder/status/1431566536439844869". Twitter. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
(help)|title=
- ^ "After giving up on 90-minute delivery five years ago due to lack of profitability, Grofers is now chasing 10-minute delivery". Business Insider. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
- ^ "Grofers puts on a new name, Blinkit, to show how the focus of its business is changing". Business Insider. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
- ^ "Grofers rebrands to Blinkit as quick commerce space heats up". VCCircle. 13 December 2021. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
- ^ "Grofers | Crunchbase". Crunchbase. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link)