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D2C29 Jul 2026· 1 hour ago

BigBasket's Quick Commerce Bet Is Now Costing It Over Rs 3,000 Crore a Year

by Startup Unplugged4 min read
BigBasket's Quick Commerce Bet Is Now Costing It Over Rs 3,000 Crore a Year
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There was a time when BigBasket simply meant filling your cart and waiting a day for delivery. That version of the company barely exists anymore, and its latest financials show exactly what the new one is costing.

Innovative Retail Concepts, the entity behind BigBasket's consumer-facing business, reported a 7.7% rise in turnover to Rs 8,223 crore in FY26, up from Rs 7,634 crore the year before, according to Tata Sons' annual report. That growth would look healthy on its own, except losses widened 66% in the same period, jumping to Rs 3,073 crore from Rs 1,850 crore. Revenue crept up in single digits while losses climbed by two-thirds, a gap that tells its own story.

The root cause traces back to August 2024, when BigBasket fully committed to quick commerce. Since then, the company has poured money into dark stores, faster logistics, aggressive discounting, and customer retention, the standard playbook for competing in a category where speed matters more than margins. The company's B2B arm, Supermarket Grocery Supplies, stayed comparatively steady, holding revenue flat at Rs 2,298 crore with losses unchanged at Rs 102 crore. Combined, the two BigBasket entities pulled in Rs 10,521 crore in revenue against Rs 3,175 crore in losses for the year.

BigBasket is not losing this fight alone. Rival Zepto posted Rs 22,624 crore in revenue alongside a Rs 5,905 crore loss in the same fiscal, while Blinkit, under Eternal, managed to turn in a positive adjusted EBITDA of Rs 102 crore in the first quarter of FY27 on Rs 15,664 crore in revenue, a reminder that profitability in this space is possible, just not guaranteed.

At the group level, Tata Digital's overall revenue rose 12% to Rs 35,990 crore, but its net loss also widened to Rs 4,974 crore. With Tata Digital holding an 84.23% stake in BigBasket, the grocery arm's widening losses remain very much the parent's problem to solve.


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