 "At Rs 1,200 cr, Flipkart bags single-largest investment in Indian e-commerce")
Avanish Tiwary
In the race to bag the highest investment in single round, Flipkart, one of India’s largest online retailers, raised $200 million (around Rs. 1200 crore) from its existing investors: Naspers, Accel and Tiger Global. To be sure, this is the fifth round of investment in Flipkart by their investors.
It is the highest amount raised by any e-commerce company in India in a single round of funding. Earlier, Fashion and You had surprised everyone by raising a whopping $40 million in 2011 from its investors, Norwest Venture Partners and Intel Capital. This new development in the fledgling e-commerce industry sets a new benchmark.
[caption id=“attachment_945393” align=“alignright” width=“380”]  Flipkart. Website/ Screengrab[/caption]
The company says the money will be used for building and strengthening its technology capabilities, refining the supply chain and in hiring new talent. “This investment validates the belief that our investors have not only believed in our capabilities as a market leader but also in the potential of e-commerce in India,” said Sachin Bansal, Co-founder and CEO, Flipkart. He added, “With this investment, we can now take Flipkart to the next level, pioneering technology and supply-chain innovations that will change the face of online shopping.”
Flipkart has recently increased its catalogue and has included apparels, toys, accessories, etc. on the portal. The company claims to have around 96 lakh registered users and more than 10 lakh unique visitors every day. However, this could not be confirmed independently. Alexa, a global online analytics search portal, ranks Flipkart at number 12 in India.
The new round of funding for Flipkart will give some assurance to other players in the market to raise money. The funding in the e-commerce sector seemed to have dried up and was seeing bad days till this deal.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsBinny Bansal, Co-founder and COO at Flipkart said, “Each round of funding has come at a strategic point during our growth. Our aim is to continuously improve the shopping experience for customers and provide sellers with a highly scalable platform on which to do business.”
Avanish Tiwary works for Entrepreneur magazine
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