According to sources familiar with the situation, the Tata Group has held talks with Microsoft to join as an anchor investor in its new digital platform.
According to them, the coffee-to-cars business is looking to bring in one or two strategic investors and begin a full-fledged financing campaign.
As behemoths like Amazon and Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries pile into the country’s fledgling e-commerce market, Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran has upped the ante on modernizing the group’s diverse consumer businesses by combining digital assets across various businesses under a new entity.
According to sources close to the company, Chandrasekaran wants to follow Reliance Jio’s lead, which saw the telecom raise Rs 1.45 lakh crore ($20 billion) from investors last year, with Facebook and Google serving as strategic equity partners.
“The challenge for a new investor is the proof of concept. Jio had a product which was up and running. In Tata’s case, all the different pieces are yet to fall in place. Where is the super app?” an executive said on condition of anonymity as the talks are still private.
Tata’s platform, Neu, is a super app that will operate as an e-commerce gateway for the company’s consumer products and services, including everything from appliances to groceries and pharmaceuticals to resorts and jewellery. This hopes to compete with Amazon.com and Walmart Inc’s local e-commerce venture, Flipkart, to woo more than one billion Indian consumers in a still-evolving sector. However, the regulatory uncertainty surrounding space has caused the launch to be postponed.
“Investors are always open to the Tata Group, there is trust. With Tata Digital, the talks are about long-term plans, and investors are also waiting to see consumer response to the app, once formally launched,” a Tata Group insider said.
