Chaldal, the leading online grocery startup in Bangladesh, has expanded its delivery service of the daily essentials to Khulna. Customers from across Khulna city can now order groceries and essential products such as fish, meat, rice, pulses, fresh vegetables and fruits, baby diapers, pet food, etc from Chaldal and get them delivered at their doorsteps.
The company has set up a warehouse in Khulna to ensure timely delivery and excellent customer service.
Customers in Khulna will have access to standard Chaldal services such as 3-7 days free return and replacement policy, 24/7 customer support service, etc.
Previously, Chaldal expanded coverage to Narayanganj, Chittagong, and Jessore. With Khulna, Chaldal is now available in five cities in Bangladesh. The company looks to expand in 15 cities in the coming months.
In September, Chaldal raised $10 million in a Series C funding round with an ambition to expand across Bangladesh and develop its other product offerings. The company looks to expand the coverage of its on-demand delivery service GoGo Bangla Limited, grow Chaldal Vegetable Network, and launch a direct-to-consumer pharmacy.
As digital commerce sees accelerated growth in Bangladesh, the online grocery vertical faces a growing competitive pressure. Multinational food delivery company Foodpanda and Alibaba owned HungryNaki have been investing heavily in online grocery. Pathao, in an effort to become a digital services platform, has also been investing in the vertical.
Chaldal, however, enjoys several advantages. Grocery supply chain is complex. As a result, it is hard to build an operational muscle to deliver quality service right out of the game. Being a first mover in the vertical, Chaldal has years of experience and it has built a highly efficient operation around grocery delivery. Moreover, unlike other players, grocery remains the key vertical for Chaldal.
While Chaldal is now looking to expand outside of grocery, it took almost seven years to do so. The company claims that it is currently the second-largest grocery player — serving over 8 lakh customers and the largest e-grocery company in Bangladesh.
In a September company press release, Chaldal reported generating $40 million in revenue and completing 2.5 million orders in the past 12 months, growing approximately 120 percent year over year.
Founded in 2013 by Waseem Alim, Tejas Viswanath, and Zia Ashraf, Chaldal pioneered the dark stores concept in Bangladesh. Chaldal delivers on-demand groceries through a network of warehouses enabled by its technology platform. Customers can select from over 8,500 different products and have them delivered within an hour.
However, as the digital commerce space heats up in Bangladesh and competition in the vertical grows, Chaldal has to move faster to maintain its lead in the category.
