Blinkit

Last updated

Blinkit
FormerlyGrofers (2013–2021)
Company type Subsidiary
Industry Q-commerce
FoundedDecember 2013;11 years ago (2013-12)
FoundersAlbinder Dhindsa
Saurabh Kumar [1]
Headquarters Gurgaon, Haryana, India
Area served
India
Key people
Albinder Dhindsa (CEO)
ProductsBistro
Services Online grocer [2]
RevenueIncrease2.svg ₹ 5,206 crore (US$620 million) (FY25) [3]
Parent Eternal Limited [4]
Website www.blinkit.com

Blink Commerce Private Limited, doing business as Blinkit (formerly Grofers), is an Indian quick-commerce company owned by Eternal Limited. [5] [6] [7] It was founded in December 2013 and is based in Gurgaon. [8] [9]

Contents

Customers of the company use a mobile application to order groceries and essentials online, which are sourced from the company's dark stores and delivered in 10 minutes. [10] Blinkit operates in 153 cities in India, as of March 2025. [11]

In 2022, Zomato Limited (now Eternal) acquired Blinkit for US$568 million in an all-stock deal. [12] [13]

History

The company, originally named Grofers, was founded in December 2013 by Albinder Dhindsa and Saurabh Kumar, [14] who had first met each other while working for Cambridge Systematics during the late 2000s. [15] The startup piloted in Delhi NCR before expanding to other cities in India.[ citation needed ]

After seven years of operations as an online grocery delivery service, [16] Grofers introduced express grocery delivery in India in 2021, by building a dark store network. In June 2021, Zomato Limited (now Eternal) acquired a 9.3% stake in Grofers for $100 million. [17] In July 2021, Grofers was reportedly delivering groceries in 15 minutes in Gurgaon. [18] A month later, in August 2021, it introduced 10-minute delivery in 12 large cities. [19] [20] By November 2021, the company was delivering 125,000 orders per day. [21]

On 13 December 2021, Grofers changed its brand name to Blinkit [22] in line with its vision to embrace quick-commerce. [23] [24] [25] [26] By the end of 2021, the company had raised about US$ 630 million from investors including SoftBank, Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital. [27] [28] [29]

In March 2022, the cash-strapped Blinkit fired 1,600 employees and ground staff, nearly 5% of its total workforce. Soon after, Zomato granted a US$150 million loan to Blinkit and entered talks to acquire it. [30] [31] On 24 June 2022, Zomato announced that it would acquire Blinkit for US$568 million in an all-stock deal. [12] The acquisition was completed on 10 August 2022. [13] [32]

Services

Blinkit primarily delivers groceries, fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, stationery, bakery items, personal care, baby and pet care products, snacks, and flowers, among others. [33]

Criticism

In August 2021, the company's 10-minute delivery service faced criticism with concerns raised over the safety of delivery partners. CEO Albinder Dhindsa, in a tweet, defended the mechanism behind express delivery and claimed that there had been zero accidents. [34] [35]

In June 2022, a Bengaluru-based web development company called Blinkhit filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Blinkit. [36]

In April 2023, hundreds of Blinkit delivery partners in Delhi NCR, where about half of the company's dark stores were located, went on strike after a revision in payout structure resulted in lower earnings for them. This led to a temporary closure of many dark stores. [37]

In June 2024, the FSSAI conducted a raid on a Blinkit warehouse in Telangana, uncovering multiple food safety violations, including unhygienic storage and handling, expired food products, and packets suspected of infestation. [38] [39]

Funding rounds

Source: [40]

Transaction NameNumber of InvestorsFund Raised
Series A1 US$ 500K
Series B2 US$ 10M
Series C2 US$ 36.5M
Series D5 US$ 120M
Series E3 US$ 58.6M
Series F7 US$ 264M
Sale Zomato Limited US$ 568.31M

See also

References

  1. ↑ Bhalla, Tarush (18 June 2021). "Kumar steps back at Grofers". mint. Retrieved 4 July 2022.
  2. ↑ "Grofers shifts base to Singapore". The Times of India. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
  3. ↑ "Shareholders' Letter and Results - Q4FY25" (PDF). Eternal Limited. Retrieved 22 June 2025.
  4. ↑ Rudra, Tapanjana (10 August 2022). "Zomato Completes Acquisition of Quick-Commerce Startup Blinkit". Inc42 Media. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
  5. ↑ Sarkar, John (13 December 2021). "Big Basket rival Grofers rebrands itself as Blinkit with eye on quick commerce". The Times of India. Retrieved 23 December 2021.
  6. ↑ Bhalla, Tarush (13 December 2021). "Grofers rebrands as Blinkit with quick commerce space heating up". mint. Retrieved 23 December 2021.
  7. ↑ "Grofers puts on a new name, Blinkit, to show how the focus of its business is changing". Business Insider. 13 December 2021. Retrieved 23 December 2021.
  8. ↑ Sen, Sunmy (23 May 2016). "It's Grofers vs BigBasket in the grocery delivery app war". Hindustan Times . Retrieved 29 September 2016.
  9. ↑ "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. ↑ "10 minute delivery". Business Today. 23 August 2021. Retrieved 26 July 2017.
  11. ↑ Sur, Shreya (22 April 2025). "Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart Expand Dark Stores Rapidly; Zepto Slows Down: JP Morgan". NDTV Profit. Retrieved 29 September 2025.
  12. 1 2 Singh, Manish (24 June 2022). "Zomato acquires Blinkit for $568 million in instant-grocery delivery push". TechCrunch .
  13. 1 2 "Zomato completes acquisition of quick commerce company Blinkit". Moneycontrol. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
  14. ↑ "Grofers To Raise Over $5 Mn From SoftBank". Inc42. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
  15. ↑ 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.
  16. ↑ "Explained: The q-commerce model, how your order is delivered in minutes". The Indian Express. 13 December 2021. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
  17. ↑ Singh, Manish (29 June 2021). "Zomato's $100 million investment to turn Grofers into a unicorn". TechCrunch. Retrieved 29 September 2025.
  18. ↑ "Grofers Forays Into Instant Delivery, Delivers To 7,000 Households Within 15 Mins". Moneycontrol. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
  19. ↑ Bhalla, Tarush (23 August 2021). "Online grocer Grofers sets sights on under 10-minute deliveries". mint. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
  20. ↑ "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.
  21. ↑ "We Are Delivering 1.25 Lakh Orders Every Day: Albinder Dhindsa Of Grofers". Moneycontrol. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
  22. ↑ "Grofers puts on a new name, Blinkit, to show how the focus of its business is changing". Business Insider. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
  23. ↑ "Grofers renames itself Blinkit with eye on faster deliveries". India Today. 14 December 2021. Retrieved 23 December 2021.
  24. ↑ "Grofers rebrands to Blinkit in line with its 10-min grocery delivery plan; steps up hiring". Business Today. 13 December 2021. Retrieved 23 December 2021.
  25. ↑ "Grofers rebrands as Blinkit, assures 10 minute delivery". Business News. 13 December 2021. Retrieved 23 December 2021.
  26. ↑ "Grofers rebrands to Blinkit as quick commerce space heats up". VCCircle. 13 December 2021. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
  27. ↑ Shu, Catherine (5 January 2016). "Indian Hyperlocal Delivery Startup Grofers Pulls Out Of 9 Cities". TechCrunch . Retrieved 29 September 2016.
  28. ↑ Ganguly, Paloma (26 November 2015). "Delivering groceries, Grofers bags big bucks from SoftBank". Tech in Asia . Retrieved 29 September 2016.
  29. ↑ Saligrama, Anirudh (15 August 2016). "How Grofers Is Battling Legal Notice That Was Served By Students". TechStory. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
  30. ↑ "Zomato to give $150 million loan to Blinkit". The Economic Times. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  31. ↑ Sahay, Priyanka; Srikanth, Chandra R (15 March 2022). "Zomato to extend $150-million loan to cash-strapped Blinkit". Moneycontrol. Retrieved 29 September 2025.
  32. ↑ Rai, Joseph (24 June 2022). "Zomato to acquire Blinkit for ₹4,447 crore in all-stock deal". mint. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  33. ↑ "Albinder Dhindsa". Yo! Success. 10 July 2015. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
  34. ↑ "Grofers co-founder defends 10-min delivery service". YourStory.com. 29 August 2021. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
  35. ↑ Dhindsa, Albinder [@albinder] (28 August 2021). "I want to chime in about the hate we are getting for delivering groceries in 10 minutes... https://t.co/RNhFvd6ojV" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 20 December 2021. Retrieved 21 December 2021– via Twitter.
  36. ↑ "Drama is all in the name". March 2023.
  37. ↑ "Blinkit strike: Why Zomato-owned company has shut down some Delhi-NCR Dark stores". The Times of India. 18 April 2023. Retrieved 5 June 2023.
  38. ↑ "FSSAI discovers food safety violations at Blinkit warehouse in Telangana, action to be taken". Mint. Retrieved 20 August 2024.
  39. ↑ "Zomato-owned Blinkit warehouse raided in Hyderabad: Company's response on these food safety violations reported". The Times of India. 11 June 2024. Retrieved 20 August 2024.
  40. ↑ Bansal, Varsha (15 May 2019). "SoftBank, Tiger Global deliver $220 million in fresh funds to Grofers". mint.
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