'I was in denial with the idea of quick commerce’: BigBasket founder Hari Menon

BigBasket founder Hari Menon, in a LinkedIn post, said he was initially in denial about the idea of quick commerce.

Penning his thoughts as he steps down as chief executive nearly 15 years after launching the online grocery, Menon reflected on how consumer behaviour changed faster than many expected.

“If you’d asked 100 people back then whether they wanted groceries in 10 mins… most would’ve said no. But the moment we gave it to our customers, they lapped it up,” he wrote.


Today, the company operates more than 900 dark stores across more than 60 cities, said Menon, who added that BigBasket is “unrecognisable” compared to its early years.

Remembering the company's early days, Menon said the team had no template for what their goal was: helping Indian households access fresh and reliable groceries.

“But we knew the four things we had to get right and that nothing else mattered until we did: order fill rate, on-time delivery, having 95% of our SKUs stocked at any given time, and the best of customer satisfaction,” he said.

Founded in 2011, BigBasket built its business around scheduled grocery deliveries and was initially reluctant to embrace quick commerce because of concerns over its cash-intensive economics.

However, the rapid rise of Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, and Zepto accelerated consumer adoption of 10-minute delivery services, particularly in urban India.

Once the country's largest online grocer, BigBasket steadily lost market share to quick commerce rivals. In August 2024, the company fully pivoted to quick commerce.

Passing the baton

Menon is handing over the “baton” to former Amazon executive Amit Nanda, who will take over as chief executive. “He brings such sharp instincts, deep consumer understanding, and exactly the kind of energy this next phase needs,” Menon said in the post.

Menon will continue to serve on the company's board.

ET had first reported in September 2025 that Menon's tenure was nearing its end following the Tata Group's acquisition of the Bengaluru-based company in 2021, as succession planning gathered pace.

BigBasket's leadership transition comes at a challenging time for the company, which reported a decline in turnover in FY25 as competition intensified.

However, in an April interview, Tata Digital chief executive and BigBasket chairman Sajith Sivanandan said the firm was starting to see early signs of recovery of lost market share, with the platform accounting for one in every five new app downloads.

He added that BigBasket's differentiation would come from quality and private labels such as Fresho and BB Royal — brands Menon says he is “enormously proud of’’ — rather than competing solely on speed or pricing