Watch: Hari Menon on making Bigbasket a consumer staple

Marquee investors have been doubling down on India’s online grocery segment, with both Alibaba-backed Bigbasket and SoftBank-backed Grofers raising large sums over the past couple of months. 

The competition in the segment is set to intensify further as Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries' retail arm readies to foray into e-commerce, and horizontal giants Flipkart and Amazon sharpen their focus on online grocery delivery.

But Bigbasket co-founder and chief executive Hari Menon isn’t worried about the deep pockets of his competitors. In fact, he feels that they have expanded the market and helped Bigbasket grow.

After pocketing $150 million from new investors including South Korea’s Mirae Asset and the UK’s CDC, Bigbasket is looking to strengthen its roots in the 26 cities in which it currently operates rather than expanding to new geographies.

In an interview with TechCircle, Menon discusses Bigbasket’s strategy to make the platform a staple for consumers by offering delivery in under two hours, investments in technology and infrastructure, and ambitions of dominating both the online and offline segments.