New Delhi, Feb 17 (IANS): BigBasket on Wednesday refused to comment on reports that Tata Group is acquiring a majority stake in the grocery delivery platform.

TechCrunch earlier reported, citing sources, that Tata Group is buying over 60 per cent stake in BigBasket "in a deal that values the grocery platform between $1.8 billion-$2 billion".

"BigBasket has raised more than $750 million prior to the deal with Tata," the report mentioned.

When contacted, Bigbasket said it does not have an official statement to share on the report.

Chinese internet giant Alibaba has about 30 per cent stake in BigBasket.

According to reports, Tata Group is expanding its operations in consumer business as Reliance firms up its own plans with JioMart amid the booming e-grocery market in the country.

A joint report by Bengaluru-based market consulting firm RedSeer and Bigbasket (Brand Intelligence) in September last year said that online grocery is going to be the next battleground for growth, expanding to over $18 billion by 2024.

"The industry has seen more than 70 per cent ARR (annual recurring revenue) jumps in the last quarter across categories. This brings the opportunity to serve a larger set of customers, and some challenges with it," said Hari Menon, co-founder and CEO of BigBasket.

As the e-commerce battle intensifies in India, the next big thing is the delivery of groceries online and the market size is estimated to grow eight times in the next five years in the country.

The eGrocery market has grown 60 per cent from the calendar year 2020 and is expected to grow 41-49 per cent by the first half of CY21, according to the latest data provided by homegrown consulting firm RedSeer.

India is witnessing a surge in demand for online grocery.

The latest Reliance takeover of Future Group's retail business is a major consolidation of organised grocery retail.

In terms of grocery retail, the revenue of Reliance Retail in FY20 was Rs 346 billion and that of Future Retail's annualised revenue for FY20 was Rs 100 billion.