According to sources in a step clearly defining its objectives to enter the e-commerce space, Reliance Industries, India’s largest private sector company, is reported to be in talks to acquire a majority stake in last mile delivery startup Grab. Meanwhile the Mumbai based startup that goes by the name Grab a Grub Services offers third party, last mile logistics services for several online services such as food delivery companies, online pharmacy and grocery delivery, among others.
Reportedly Grab has its operation in 49 cities in the country and already some 127 million deliveries have been made by them so far. Furthermore from Reliance’s point of view, it has a well spread offline presence in retail with the Reliance Fresh grocery, Reliance Digital stores that deal in electronic goods and the Trendz chain stores for fashion, footwear, etc.
Moreover the company is yet to enter the e-commerce business and has only expressed its intentions to leverage its digital technology platform Jio and the other connected ecosystems it has created over the last few years to take on the large e-commerce players. Further lastly, it has been announced that Reliance may choose Gujarat as the first territory it will start these O2O business as the company has a strong offline retail presence in that state.
