And just when you started getting reports on how grocery and hyperlocal delivery startups were running out of cash, there’s more money coming into that segment. Bucketkart, an online grocery startup which claims to be serving more than 4,000 customers already, has nabbed $1,50,000 in seed funding from a group of angel investors, names of whom haven’t been disclosed by the company.
With fresh infusion of cash in the company, it is now planning to expand its operations to 2 new cities by the end of this month and to 3 more cities by the end of November. It is currently operating in Bangalore only.
Founded by Tyagi Santosh, Amit Jha, BK Barnwal, and Shiv Acharya, Bucketkart.com is an Online Grocery Store with more than 5,000 products from over 500 brands.
Users can find everything in Bucketkart.com — similar to to other grocery delivery startups — right from Fruits & Vegetables, Grocery, Personal Care, Beverages, Dairy Products, Household, Read to eat, Meat & Masala and Pet care. Users are given a wide range of options in every category, exclusively handpicked to help you find the best quality available at the lowest prices.
Currently, users can order products from the company’s website. However, the mobile application is under development and will be launched soon for Android and iOS platform.
In this space, the company will compete against the well funded startups like BigBasket, PepperTap, EkStop, etc. BigBasket has the largest market share in this segment, followed by ZopNow, according a report from Ken Research. It will however be interesting to see how BucketKart or any of these new, upcoming startups fare in this arena, considering investors skepticism for this particular sector, and hence shortage of much funds.
PepperTap, which started its operations in 2014, had recently raised $36 million in funding from its existing investors – SAIF Partners and Sequoia Capital. Many other major companies like AskeMe.com, Ola and Tata Group has also entered the online grocery delivery space.
According to another report by Retail consultancy Technopak, online grocery delivery industry is estimated to be worth less than $100 million at present, but is expected to cross $25 billion by 2020. It is expected to grow at a rate of 25-30 per cent year-on-year in major Indian cities.
