What was essential to push Grofers forward and grow one of the biggest eGrocery players in the Indian market in such a short duration of just 4 years has been the entrepreneurial spirit and the foresight that Albinder Dhindsa carries for the market.
Co-founder Dhindsa kept running the day-to-day activities and strategic moves at the helm of affairs within Grofers. From the initial concept to its inception, raising funds to set up the company – Dhindsa led in strategizing the long-term business model and setting up viable supply chains.
With a visionary like Dhindsa at its helm, Blinkit (previously Grofers) grew more than 4 times in India and recently crossed over 100 crore monthly GMV or Gross Merchandise Value. Presently, even though acquired by Zomato, Blinkit is one of the biggest players in the eGrocery industry, especially in the Next Day Delivery Model.
Albinder Dhindsa – Biography
| Name | Albinder Dhindsa |
|---|---|
| Born | Patiala, Punjab |
| Nationality | India |
| Profession | CEO, Co-Founder of Blinkit |
| Education | IIT Delhi University of Columbia (MBA) |
| Spouse | Akriti Chopra (wife) |
Albinder Dhindsa – Early Life and Education
Albinder Dhindsa – The Grofers Story
Albinder Dhindsa – Major Challenges Faced
Albinder Dhindsa – Growth of Grofers
Albinder Dhindsa – Business Model
Albinder Dhindsa – Grofers to Blinkit
Albinder Dhindsa – Famous Quotes
Albinder Dhindsa – Early Life and Education
Albinder hails from Patiala in Punjab. He completed his Bachelor’s program at IIT Delhi and started his career as a transportation analyst at URS Corporation, where he worked for 2 years. Later, he joined Cambridge Systematics as a Senior Associate and worked for more than 3 years.
In 2010, he went to the University of Columbia, United States, to pursue his MBA. Here, Dhindsa joined UBS Investment Bank as an associate and worked for 3 months.
After completing his MBA, he returned to India and knew he wanted to work in the food domain. He entered the Indian workforce as the new Head of International Operations at Zomato. Here he gathered enough knowledge and experience to begin working on his dream project, Grofers.
Rishabh Rathi
Albinder Dhindsa – The Grofers Story
As Dhindsa worked in the food delivery business, he realised that there were loopholes in the logistics sector. While brainstorming with his partner, Saurabh Kumar, he saw that most of the transactions between the local merchants and consumers were mostly unorganized.
As he met and spoke to more and more local merchants with a good customer base, he realized that they struggled to deliver quality goods in a reliable manner. That was the ‘Eureka!’ moment for Dhindsa as he dreamt of a startup that would help with daily problems. That was when the concept of Grofers was born.
According to Dhindsa, the initial purpose of Grofers was to offer on-demand pick-up and drop service from shops around the same neighborhood. The shops in question were mostly pharmacies, grocery stores, and restaurants. Their ideology was to provide customers with a one-stop solution for local everyday requirements.
After realizing that they needed to confine their business only to pharmacies and groceries (there were enough food delivery apps already in the market). They then rebranded their startup as Grofers – a super-local logistics agency.
Albinder Dhindsa – Major Challenges Faced
Towards the end of 2015, Grofers was running at a loss of INR 225 crores with a revenue of only INR 143 crores. For months, Grofers kept hitting losses, but that changed when they launched a mobile app in 2015. Sadly, the scale-up operation had gone haywire and Grofer’s suffered tremendous losses.
Again, Dhindsa identified the loophole and resolved the issue. The problem lies with a complicated and broken supply chain. To help solve this problem, the Grofers entrepreneur set up their own supply chain.
Nitin Konde
Albinder Dhindsa – Growth of Grofers
When working for Zomato, Albinder realized that there was a market gap when it came to connecting local merchants with consumers. The idea to create a one-stop solution for all local needs was born and the hyper-logistics company, Grofers, came into existence. Under his leadership, the company was named one of the top 10 start-ups by YourStory.com and was listed in the top 10 promising Gurgaon-based start-ups by IndianWeb2.com.
Grofers faced multiple issues and at one moment was running at a loss of INR 7 Crore on revenue of INR 5 crore. However, Albinder came up with the idea to have Grofer’s own warehouse and supply chain management. During the initial stage, investors did not want to join a business that did not return any profits. But Dhindsa and his partner were able to convince some investors. They started by setting up over 60,000 sq. ft. storage facilities in Gurgaon, Delhi, and Bangalore. Smaller warehouses of 20,000 sq. ft. were set up in cities like Jaipur, Hyderabad, and Chennai.
With a new and improved supply system, business started booming and the average order value shot up from just INR 750 in 2016, to INR 1300.
Albinder Dhindsa – Business Model
Initially, Grofers (now Blinkit) was started as a Business 2 Business (B2B) model but later shifted to a Business 2 Customer (B2C) model. The best aspect of starting Grofers was the endless possibilities of using a hyper-local delivery network. By closing over 500 deliveries per day, Grofers soon became a formidable competitor in the market. By November 2021, the company was delivering 125,000 orders every day under the Grofers’ founder leadership.
Nitin Konde
Albinder Dhindsa – Grofers to Blinkit
After being in operation as an online grocery delivery service, Grofers introduced its express delivery system in India. This was done by building dark stores across multiple cities. In July 2021, the company reported a delivery of over 7000 groceries in under 15 minutes in Gurgaon. A month later after completing over 20,000 under-15-minute deliveries in over 10 cities, it introduced its 10-minute delivery program in over 12 cities. In December 2021, Grofers changed its brand name to Blinkit lining it with its vision to embrace quick-commerce.
But in 2022 in an effort to cut down their burn rate, Blinkit fired nearly 5% of their total workforce. The year before Zomate acquired a 10% stake in the company, and following multiple discussions in June 2022, Zomato acquired Blinkit for $568 million in an all-stock deal. The acquisition was completed in August 2022.
Albinder Dhindsa – Famous Quotes
“We are not too worried about competition entering the space. The space is not small. We provide customers with a service they didn’t know they needed. We will stay focused on the customer.”
“You invest in people, you don’t invest in ideas.”
“Each city is different. Every community requires customization.”
“Our motivation for starting this business was based only on convenience, but we realized soon enough that there are other reasons too why people come online to buy from us.”
FAQ
Who is the CEO of Blinkit India?
The CEO of Blinkit India is Albinder Dhindsa.
Where is Albinder Dhindsa from?
Albinder Dhindsa, the CEO of Blinkit, is originally from Patiala, Punjab, India.
Is Blinkit bigger than Zomato?
Blinkit is currently valued higher than Zomato’s food delivery business, according to Goldman Sachs, with a share price of INR 119 for Blinkit compared to INR 98 for Zomato.
What is Albinder Dhindsa’s education?
Albinder Dhindsa completed his education at IIT Delhi, where he earned his undergraduate degree before pursuing an MBA at Columbia Business School
