Flipkart Close To Raising $400 Mn-$500 Mn From ADQ In Mammoth $3 Bn Round

Flipkart is reported to be in advanced stages of discussions with ADQ, formerly known as Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Company, for a mega $400Mn-$500 Mn investment, as part of its upcoming funding round. The funding round, which would value Flipkart at roughly $35 Bn-$40 Bn, is expected to be concluded in the next few weeks.

Ahead of a potential IPO, Flipkart is said to be in talks to raise $3 Bn from investors including SoftBank and several sovereign wealth funds.

The Bengaluru-based ecommerce giant is targeting a valuation of $40 Bn with this round and is in discussions with Singapore’s GIC, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. After exiting Flipkart in 2018, Japanese conglomerate SoftBank is in talks to invest $700 Mn in the ecommerce marketplace.

Reports last year suggested that Flipkart may go public as early as 2022 at a valuation of $45Bn-$50 Bn. The ecommerce giant was said to be looking at an overseas IPO, either in the US or Singapore. Flipkart was also said to be looking at the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) route to getting listed in the US.

But last week, Walmart president said Flipkart will bide its time and the US retail giant is not assigning a specific timeline to the public listing.“From the day we made the acquisition or the investment, we made it clear we would be open to an IPO. “We will do it (Flipkart IPO) when it’s time for the business, it’s not an output, it’s not a target for us to do that,” Walmart International President Judith McKenna said at an industry conference recently.

Walmart reported that Flipkart and its payments subsidiary PhonePe continued to experience “strong growth” in Q1 FY22 (February- April quarter). The company said, Flipkart continued to perform well driving strong and sustainable ecommerce gross merchandise value (GMV) growth even as the teams dealt with the challenges of resurging Covid cases in India.

The fundraising for Flipkart comes at a time when Amazon is also infusing funds in its India entity to back the next phase of expansion. Amazon Seller Services, the marketplace unit of the US-based ecommerce giant Amazon, received a capital infusion of INR 915 Cr in early May. The infusion was led by Singapore-based Amazon Corporate Holdings, with participation from the parent entity Amazon.com Inc.

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