After UberEats, Zomato is eyeing to buy Grofers

According to sources cited in two separate reports, one from Entrackr and other from Economic Times, Zomato is in early talks to acquire Grofers in a deal that might value the latter at around $750 million.

The discussions, these people say, are at the founder and company level right now and might move to the board level if all goes well.

The sources speaking to ET further noted that SoftBank, the main investor of Grofers, might infuse an additional $100-200 million in the merged Zomato-Grofers entity through its venture capital arm 'Vision Fund'.

Notably, Zomato and Grofers have already partnered for Zomato Market, a service that allows the company to deliver groceries and daily essentials from local stores that have tie-ups with Grofers.

As of now, there is no official word on the possibility of a Zomato-Grofers merger.

Saurabh Kumar, the founder of Grofers, tweeted, "Despite what sources say, the only discussion we are having @Grofers is how to scale our supply chain to serve the unprecedented demand...We have a responsibility to our customers and country at this time and our teams are 100% focused on that."

If the deal goes through (now or later), Zomato would get a major push to take on the likes of Swiggy, which has been boosting its grocery delivery segment lately, as well as other players already operating or stepping into the delivery of essential goods.

This includes Grofers's long-standing competition BigBasket and e-commerce giants Flipkart and Amazon India.