Launched in April this year, Grameen e-Store is available in 120,000 locations across the country. It has already clocked Rs 120 crore in turnover so far.
ETtechIllustration: Rahul Awasthi
Tata Digital, the youngest digital arm of the Tata Sons group, has invested about Rs 10 crore for an undisclosed stake in Grameen e-Store, the government's rural ecommerce venture, according to a top official. Grameen e-Store, launched in April this year, is available in 120,000 locations across the country. It has already clocked Rs 120 crore in turnover so far.
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The e-store is run by common service centres (CSC) under the ministry of electronics and IT (MeitY).
The venture is also in talks with HDFC Bank for a possible stake sale, according to sources.
ET had reported last month that the government’s ambitious rural ecommerce venture has brought on board big brands such as white goods retailer Tata Croma and leading financier HDFC Bank to scale up its operations. It already has partnerships with large multi-nationals such as Pepsi, Coca-Cola and home-grown oil and gas giant Bharat Petroleum.
The investment comes at a time when the Tatas are building their own ecommerce venture and tying in their various consumer ventures through a superapp.
The group is reportedly in talks with several players, including India’s largest egrocer BigBasket, for a majority stake which could be valued at $1 billion. The deal, which is also likely to be executed through Tata Digital, is one of the steps towards building the scalability of business through a combination of online and offline deals.
Tata Digital will get a seat on the board of CSC Grameen eStore Pvt. Ltd., which is a 100% subsidiary of CSC e-Governance Services, a joint venture between the IT ministry and the industry.
A source close to HDFC Bank confirmed that “talks are on” between the two parties for a minority stake sale. “Since it’s a bank, several regulatory approvals will have to be taken,” the person said, adding that HDFC has been an early partner and investor in the CSCs and is quite interested in having a deeper relationship with Grameen eStore.
Tata Sons and HDFC Bank did not comment on the emailed queries.
The digital centres, or CSCs, are present in close to 385,000 locations across rural areas and aid people in accessing government as well as private services digitally. Since the start of the rural ecommerce venture, the entrepreneurs manning the CSCs are also delivering products to people in nearby areas which are ordered through the Grameen eStore app. The catalogues are customised locally by the entrepreneurs based on the availability of products.
Dinesh Tyagi, managing director of the CSC e-governance Services, told ET that the capital will be used to strengthen the platform by building its technology further, increasing reach and laying a stronger supply and distribution network for brands.
“We have the platform which has done very well. Now we need to strengthen it,” said Tyagi, adding that there has been a very good response from several large multinationals which have partnered with Grameen eStore very early on, but many of them do not have distributors and resellers in the rural areas.
“Officials are making efforts towards helping many companies build their distributor network and also get financial assistance,” said Tyagi.
The venture is finding a good response since it is enabling direct reach for companies to customers in far flung areas of the country without having to build expensive last mile supply chains. For the users, it means accessibility of products that were earlier unable to either visit malls or shop through ecommerce portals.
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