Blinkit bags nearly Rs 600 Cr from parent Eternal as quick commerce race intensifies

Quick commerce platform Blinkit has secured Rs 599.94 crore from its parent entity Eternal Ltd, formerly Zomato. The board approved issuing 3,733 equity shares at Rs 16,07,161 apiece, filings from the Registrar of Companies showed.

The fresh capital comes as India's quick commerce players raise billions to fund an aggressive dark store expansion race across major Indian cities. Blinkit added 272 dark stores during Q2 of this fiscal year, while Swiggy added only 40 warehouses.

Last month, Swiggy called a board meeting to seek approval to raise as much as Rs 10,000 crore to shore up its growth capital. Swiggy told shareholders it had been forced to accelerate spending in its quick commerce unit, Instamart, as demand outpaced internal projections, even though it can double its quick commerce revenue without adding more dark stores.

Last week, BigBasket, backed by Tata Digital, raised Rs 200 crore in debt from DBS Bank to expand and maintain its network of dark stores. Its B2C arm approved issuing 20,000 non-convertible debentures at Rs 1 lakh each, filings showed. The company last tapped equity investors in 2022, when Tata Digital led a $200 million round.

Meanwhile, Zepto closed a $450 million (about Rs 4,000 crore) fund raise in October led by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), with participation from Avenir, Avra, Lightspeed, Glade Brook, StepStone Group and Nexus Venture Partners. The round valued the company at $7 billion.

“This financing is a reflection of our team's execution to grow the business rapidly while consistently building operating leverage,” Chief Executive Aadit Palicha had earlier said. He added that Zepto now holds about $900 million in net cash.

The quick commerce giant had earlier announced closing a Rs 400 crore fund in August this year from Motilal Oswal Financial Services. Before that, it had raised Rs 7.5 crore from Elcid Investments, a Mumbai-based NBFC, at a valuation of $5 billion.