Flipkart raises $200 million from existing investors

In what can be considered as a landmark moment, popular online retail store Flipkart.com has raised $200 million (roughly Rs 1,200 crore) from its existing investors, reports The Economic Times. The deal follows what is being referred to as the single-largest round of funding for an Indian e-commerce company. It is also the fifth round of funding for the online retail site.

MIH (part of South Africa’s Naspers), Tiger Global, Accel Partners and Iconiq Capital are all a part of this latest deal.

Big plans for the future

Sachin Bansal, Chief Executive, Flipkart, was quoted as saying, “There was a lot of scepticism about Flipkart and e-commerce in india. This funding refutes that. We see this as a great validation.”

As per reports, Flipkart will be using funds from this latest deal for investments in technology, supply chain, automation and people development. In all, Flipkart has raised $380 million (roughly Rs 2,280 crore) from investors.

The Next Big What blog quoted Bansal as saying, “We are getting into a bigger league than what we have done so far."

Flipkart had earlier raised $150 million from Accel Partners and Tiger Global. In August 2012, in what was considered to be one of the biggest fund raising at the time, Flipkart raised about Rs 8.22 billion (US$140 million). The company also plans to invest in talent pool in the future. “There is no ready made talent in India. We will invest heavily on creating and hiring such talent,” Bansal was quoted as saying by the website.

This development at Flipkart comes at an interesting time. The e-commerce market in India is climbing new highs and has seen players like Amazon, Snapdeal, to name a few, make an entry over the years.