After a lot of buzz in the media for weeks, Flipkart today finally announced that it has closed a $700 Mn funding round and is now valued at $11Bn. The round saw participation of Baillie Gifford, Greenoaks Capital, Steadview Capital, T. Rowe Price Associates and Qatar Investment Authority. It’s existing investors DST Global, GIC, ICONIQ Capital and Tiger Global, also participated in this latest round. This round is inclusive of the $150 Mn and $180 Mn rounds that happened earlier this week.
The funds raised will be used towards long-term strategic investments in India and to build a world-class technology company, delivering superior customer experiences.
Flipkart is now the second most valuable private company in the world, just behind Uber.
The official statement released states:
“Flipkart, India’s largest e-commerce marketplace, today announced a US $ 700 million investment with new investors: Baillie Gifford, Greenoaks Capital, Steadview Capital, T. Rowe Price Associates and Qatar Investment Authority, along with existing investors: DST Global, GIC, ICONIQ Capital and Tiger Global, who also participated in this latest financing round.
As with previous funds raised, these funds will be used towards long-term strategic investments in India and to build a world-class technology company, delivering superior customer experiences.
Flipkart Limited (incorporated at Singapore) has filed with ACRA Singapore for conversion to a Public Company. This is a mandatory procedure for all companies where the number of shareholders exceeds 50. This filing ensures we are in compliance with the laws of Singapore and is in no way indicative of any upcoming IPO or of any corporate activity that the company is engaged in either in Singapore or any other part of the world.”
This is Flipkart’s third round of funding which it has raised during this year. In May,Flipkart had raised $210 Mn led by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner’s DST Global and later in July it raised a $1 Bn led by existing investors Tiger Global and South Africa’s media group Naspers. The company was then valued at about $7 Bn.
Flipkart claims that it had hit an annual revenue run rate of $1 Bn in February this year,which means it clocked sales worth over INR 500 Cr. that month. The company had posted a loss of INR 644.37 Cr. on revenue of INR 1,163.1 Cr. in 2012-13.
On the other side, its competitor, Snapdeal has raised about $ 1 Bn during the current year and Amazon had invested $2 Bn in its Indian operations.
