Flipkart Becomes India’s 1st Ecommerce Company To Bag NBFC Licence

Ecommerce giant Flipkart has secured a non-banking financial company (NBFC) licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). It will now be able to offer loans directly to consumers and sellers on its platform.

With this, Flipkart has also become India’s first ecommerce company to fetch an NBFC licence.  Notably, the Walmart-backed company applied for the NBFC licence in 2022, the report added.

The licence, which was granted in March 2025, permits Flipkart to provide loans without the capacity to accept deposits. Reuters reported the development first, citing documents and sources close to the matter.

A Flipkart spokesperson also confirmed the development to Inc42.

Usually, ecommerce companies partner with banks and NBFCs to offer loans to their customers, but the NBFC licence will now enable the ecommerce giant to directly offer credit options, without depending on third-parties. 

As per the report, the online marketplace could commence its lending operation “in a few months”. A final decision will be subject to the completion of various internal processes such as the appointment of key management personnel and board members and the finalisation of business plans. 

A source reportedly said that the company plans to lend directly to its users on its ecommerce platform and through its fintech app super.money. On the B2B side, it may also offer financing to sellers listed on the platform. 

Flipkart’s Fintech Push 

Flipkart’s experiments with fintech stretch back nearly a decade. The ecommerce giant acquired digital payments giant PhonePe in 2015 to enter the country’s burgeoning fintech space. However, PhonePe was hived off as a separate entity in 2022.  

In 2020, the company also floated a $100 Mn venture fund, Flipkart Leap Ahead, to back early stage startups. Since its inception, Flipkart has backed several early stage fintech startups, including Castler and FinBox.

However, the ecommerce juggernaut’s fintech ambitions took centre stage last year after it partnered with Axis Bank to roll out its own payment offerings, called “Flipkart UPI. It also expanded its digital payment portfolio by rolling out the credit card bill payment facility and a slew of other offerings. 

In the second half of 2024, the company also rolled out its fintech super app super.money in beta mode. Subsequently, super.money launched a bevy of offerings and became the fifth-largest UPI player in February 2025. Overtaking Kunal Shah-led CRED, it clocked 13.9 Cr UPI transactions worth INR 4,812.4 Cr. 

Looking to further bolster super.money’s play, the ecommerce major is also said to be looking to infuse $35-40 Mn in its fintech app. 

Flipkart Back In The Hiring Game

The past couple of years have been a little tough for the ecommerce giant, as the rise of quick commerce, slowing consumption, funding winter and heavy cash burn had forced the company to cut corners. 

While several senior employees were denied a pay hike for a second consecutive year in 2024, the ecommerce major is reportedly planning to dole out increments in the range of 8% to 15% this year. 

“This time the range was wide and the reason (for the salary increments) is meritocracy… So for somebody who’s either been in the top two performance ratings or somebody who got promoted in the last cycle, the ratings have been even more rich,” chief human resources officer at Flipkart Seema Nair told Livemint. 

She also reportedly claimed that the company has expanded its stock option allocation exercise to a “much larger employee pool” this year.

The ecommerce major also plans to hire as many as 5,000 employees across its business segments (including quick-commerce platform Minutes) in fiscal year 2025-26 (FY26). As per the report, the hiring exercise will centre around roles in hyperlocal commerce and fashion for Minutes. 

Flipkart also aims to hire across various business verticals, including central and regional supply chain roles, positions at travel platform Cleartrip, and tech roles in product, design, and engineering with a focus on AI.