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Online retailer Flipkart has raised $180 Mn in a new funding round led by Steadview Capital. “Steadview has committed $100 Mn of the $180 Mn and as the subsequent tranches close, more new investors will come in,” says a source close to the development.
As per reports, post this round which when complete could bring in about $700 Mn in fresh funding for Flipkart and will value the company at about $11 Bn (INR 69,000 Cr.) making it worth more than some of India’s largest consumer companies.
Its existing investors DST Global, Naspers and Tiger Global Management are also expected to participate in this round of funding.
Rumors of Flipkart’s this round of funding has been in media for the past few weeks now. Last week, there were reports stating that the 7 year old firm is in talks to raise another round of funding between $ 700 Mn to $1 Bn. Reports also suggested that the Qatar Investment Authority, the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar, (which is also an investor in Uber) will also be investing in this round, however, its not confirmed for now, whether or not it will be participating in this new fund raise.
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.
The company plans to invest the new fund raise in discounting and upgrading technology.
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.
Ecommerce market is estimated to grow to $43 Bn by 2018 according to Nomura, during the current year more than $3 Bn have been invested in this segment.
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