Supermarket Grocery Supplies Pvt Ltd (Big Basket) and Grofers India Private Limited are reportedly exploring merger talks. Both have held merger talks, though these discussions are preliminary and have moved slowly so far, multiple people familiar with the matter said on the condition of anonymity. Sources in the know said talks between the two parties, which started in November 2016, will be brought up during BigBasket's board meeting scheduled for end of January 2017. The next steps also hinge on BigBasket's financing round, which if done successfully may scupper the proposed deal. Also, Grofer's backers SoftBank Corp. and Tiger Global Management LLC, ploughing fresh funds into the merged entity , could also be an important criterion for deciding the future course of talks. Hari Menon, co-founder of BigBasket, said, “We do not respond to speculations like these. We are in a very comfortable position on capital availability.” Albinder Dhindsa, co-founder Chief Executive Officer of Grofers, said, “We don't comment on speculation. Our business has grown 50% over the last quarter and we continue to work on building a sustainable grocery business. Currently, we are not looking at any investments or strategic options.”