The British department store and supermarket group, John Lewis Partnership, is to increase its investment in Ocado, the Internet food retailer, as part of a £46m ($64.5m) fund-raising by the dotcom start-up, the Financial Times reports. Ocado will use John Lewis's Waitrose brand when it starts operations this year. It has raised the funds in an exceptionally difficult market. Since the dotcom bubble burst last year, online businesses have found it almost impossible to raise new funds. However, Ocado's money, which comes mainly from John Lewis and UBS, the investment bank, values the group at about £200m. John Lewis will inject £11m to maintain its 40 per cent equity stake in Ocado, formerly known as Last Mile Solutions. The group initially invested £35m for its 40 per cent stake. UBS has invested £20m for about 10 per cent of the business. The rest of the money takes the form of £15m of new debt agreed by the group. It hopes to launch its service in London before the end of the year and plans to go nationwide within five years. Unlike the leading UK supermarket groups, Ocado is starting from scratch. It is building a 34,000-square-meter distribution centre in Hatfield, to initially serve the London area, but with the capacity to serve the southeast region. .Ocado claims the online grocery market could be worth at least £25m within 7-10 years. Source: Financial Times
