Reliance Industries (RIL) is in talks to acquire online furniture brand Urban Ladder and milk delivery platform Milkbasket in a bid to boost its e-commerce role, The Times of India said.
The conversation with Urban Ladder has been going on for the last couple of months and is now at an advanced level, according to the article. The deal was valued at about $30 million by people close to discussion including more injections into the company and earn-out for the management team.
Likewise, after its negotiations with Amazon and Bigbasket had failed to bear fruit, Milkbasket is inching close to RIL. According to the TOI report, the latest $5 million capital injection has given the firm a new lease of life and is negotiating on the company’s valuation.
The company serves over 130,000 households and meets the needs of a whole household with 9,000 products across categories of fruit and vegetables, dairy, bakery, and other FMCG products. It currently operates in Gurgaon, Noida, Dwarka, Ghaziabad, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad.
Milkbasket has witnessed a 2.2 to 2.5-fold increase in the average order value across 130,000 active user base while 500-1,000 new signups have been onboard daily since the lockdown. This comes as Covid-19 gave the e-commerce firms a fillip as more customers moved to buy online groceries. India’s online grocery market could reach $3 billion in revenue this year, a rise of 76 percent over the previous year, according to Forrester Research.
Reliance Brands has acquired Ronnie Screwvala ‘s stake in leading lingerie retailer Zivame from Unilazer Ventures and is in talks with other investors to take full ownership of the business.
Reliance Brands, which sells many premium and luxury labels such as Jimmy Choo, Tiffany, Diesel, and Mothercare in India, said people close to the development could pay up to $160 million or around Rs 1,200 crore-to acquire Zivame. Zodius Capital and Khazanah Nasional Berhad, a Malaysian sovereign fund, will exit the firm, these people added.
As part of the deal, Reliance can include $130-$150 million for the asset through one of its subsidiaries, along with a fresh infusion of capital into Netmeds to expand the operations
RIL is also in the primary phase of talks to take over TikTok & it’s India operations, Techcrunch said.
They are stated to be in the primary phase of evaluating the potential for investment in short-form video sharing applications at this juncture for TikTok ‘s Indian operations. The development is significant in the light of ongoing talks between a technology giant Microsoft to acquire a controlling stake in China’s global shorts before the Donald Trump administration ‘s 15 September deadline.
The change will further cement the role of RIL as the top brick-and-mortar player across categories such as grocery stores, fashion and general merchandise, two people briefed on the subject.
