Walmart commits $50 mn investment in Ninjacart to get stronger foothold in fresh produce segment
Walmart commits $50 mn investment in Ninjacart to get stronger foothold in fresh produce segment

Retail giant Walmart has committed to invest $50 million in fresh fruit and vegetable supply chain startup Ninjacart. The first tranche of $10 million will be received by the startup in the next three weeks.

As part of the transaction, the US retail company will get a board seat in Ninjacart.

With this investment, Walmart will get a stronger foothold in the fresh produce segment, while also helping Flipkart in scaling up its grocery business. However, there will be no direct integration of NinjaCart with Flipkart’s grocery play for now. 

An investor directly aware of the deal said, “Flipkart wants to scale its grocery and fresh going ahead. Separately, this also supplements Walmart's cash-and-carry supply chain, which is why this investment makes sense.”

Walmart has a majority stake in Flipkart and has been operating cash and carry stores in India under the brand name Best Price Modern Wholesale and Best Price.

Last month, Walmart India opened its third cash and carry store, Best Price Modern Wholesale Store, in Telangana. The company further runs 25 stores under the Best Price brand, a membership-based programme that counts over one million members, a majority of whom are small resellers and kirana stores.

Founded by Nagarajan, Kartheeswaran K K, Ashutosh Vikram, Sharath Loganathan and Vasudevan Chinnathambi in 2015, Ninjacart picks up the produce directly from the farmer’s fields and delivers it to the businesses. It claims to source fruits and vegetables from farmers across more than 20 Indian states and delivers to over 17K local kiranas and restaurants in seven Indian cities.

 
Stay on top – Get the daily news from Indian Retailer in your inbox
Also Worth Reading