Alibaba vs Blinkit: Founders, CEOs and History

Company facts

Founders

CEOs and their tenures

Timeline: Alibaba and Blinkit side by side

1. 1999Alibaba

   Alibaba.com Launched

   Jack Ma and 17 co-founders launch Alibaba.com from a Hangzhou apartment with $60,000 in pooled savings, creating a B2B online marketplace connecting Chinese manufacturers with international buyers.

2. 1999Alibaba

   First Major Investment from SoftBank

   Masayoshi Son invests $20 million in Alibaba in a meeting reportedly lasting five minutes, alongside $5 million from Goldman Sachs, providing survival capital through the imminent dot-com crash.

3. 2001Alibaba

   Gold Supplier Program Launch

   Alibaba launches the Gold Supplier verified membership program at $3,000 per year, generating approximately $10 million in first-year revenue and proving the B2B marketplace model's commercial viability.

4. 2003Alibaba

   Taobao Launches to Challenge eBay

   Alibaba secretly develops and launches Taobao, a consumer-to-consumer marketplace offered free to both buyers and sellers, directly targeting eBay's Chinese market position. Within three years, Taobao surpasses eBay's Chinese market share.

5. 2004Alibaba

   Alipay Escrow Service Created

   Alibaba creates Alipay as a payment escrow solution for Taobao transactions, holding buyer funds until delivery confirmation before releasing payment to sellers solving the trust barrier that was limiting online commerce adoption.

6. 2008Alibaba

   Tmall (Taobao Mall) Launch

   Alibaba launches a premium B2C marketplace initially called Taobao Mall (later rebranded Tmall), allowing established brands to operate official storefronts with higher trust credentials and enabling Alibaba to serve the premium consumer segment.

7. 2009Alibaba

   Alibaba Cloud Founded

   Alibaba launches Alibaba Cloud (Aliyun) as a cloud computing business, a decade ahead of many enterprise adoption cycles, positioning it to become Asia Pacific's dominant cloud provider.

8. 2011Alibaba

   First Singles' Day Shopping Festival

   Alibaba transforms the informal 'Singles' Day' celebration on November 11 into a promotional shopping event on Taobao and Tmall, generating ~$130 million (936 million yuan) in sales a figure that would grow more than 100-fold in subsequent years.

9. 2013Blinkit

   Company Founded as Grofers

   Albinder Dhindsa and Saurabh Kumar launched a hyperlocal grocery delivery app in Gurugram.

10. 2014Alibaba

    Record-Breaking NYSE IPO

    Alibaba completes its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange on September 19, 2014, raising $25 billion the largest IPO in US stock market history at that time at a valuation of approximately $168 billion.

11. 2015Blinkit

    $120 Million SoftBank-Led Round

    Grofers raised its largest early round and acqui-hired SpoonJoy and Townrush in October.

12. 2016Blinkit

    Layoffs and Push for Break-Even

    Grofers cut about 10% of staff and withdrew 67 campus offers as funding tightened.

13. 2019Alibaba

    Dual Listing on Hong Kong Stock Exchange

    Alibaba completes a secondary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, raising an additional $13 billion and broadening its investor base among Asian institutional and retail investors, reducing dependence on US capital markets.

14. 2021Alibaba

    Record Antitrust Fine

    Chinese regulators impose a 18.23 billion yuan ($2.8 billion USD) antitrust fine on Alibaba following a months-long investigation into its 'choose one from two' exclusivity practices at the time, the largest antitrust fine in Chinese regulatory history.

15. 2021Blinkit

    Relaunch as Blinkit

    After Zomato's $100 million investment and Saurabh Kumar's exit, Grofers became Blinkit in December.

16. 2022Blinkit

    Zomato Completes Acquisition

    The ~$516 million (₹4,447 crore) all-stock deal closed and Blinkit was consolidated from August 10, 2022.

17. 2023Alibaba

    Six-Business-Unit Restructuring Announced

    Alibaba announces its most significant organizational restructuring, dividing the company into six independent business units each with its own CEO and board: Taobao Tmall Group, Cloud Intelligence Group, Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group, Cainiao S…

18. 2024Blinkit

    Monthly Adjusted EBITDA Break-Even

    Blinkit broke even on adjusted EBITDA in March 2024 with 526 stores.

19. 2024Blinkit

    Bistro Pilot in Gurugram

    Blinkit launched Bistro, a separate app for snacks and meals delivered in minutes, in December 2024.

20. 2025Blinkit

    Blinkit Ambulance Launched

    The first five Blinkit ambulances went into service in Gurugram on January 2, 2025.

21. 2025Blinkit

    Parent Becomes Eternal; 1,301 Stores

    Zomato renamed itself Eternal Ltd in March 2025, when Blinkit's network reached 1,301 dark stores.

22. 2025Blinkit

    Switch to Owned Inventory

    From September 1, 2025 Blinkit stopped operating as a marketplace and began buying and selling stock itself.

23. 2025Blinkit

    First Positive Quarterly Adjusted EBITDA

    Blinkit earned ~$464,000 (₹4 crore) of adjusted EBITDA in the October-December 2025 quarter and ended it with 2,027 stores.

24. 2026Blinkit

    10-Minute Tagline Dropped; Dhindsa Becomes Group CEO

    Blinkit removed its 10-minute claim in January, and Albinder Dhindsa took over as Eternal Group CEO on February 1.

25. 2026Blinkit

    ₹37,779 Crore FY26 Revenue and 2,443 Stores

    Blinkit closed FY26 with ~$4.38 billion (₹37,779 crore) of revenue and reached 2,443 stores by June 30, 2026.

Acquisitions

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