Flipkart, PhonePe To Become $100 Bn Businesses Soon: Walmart

Walmart’s chief financial officer (CFO), John David Rainey, has said that the company’s Indian subsidiaries, Flipkart and PhonePe, have the potential to become $100 Bn businesses in the near future. 

“It is not crazy to think that both those businesses could be $100 Bn businesses in the future,” Rainey said during an investor conference.

Continuing to be bullish on India, he added that strong growth tailwinds could spur its marketplace and payments businesses in the country

The statement comes nearly a month after Walmart released its financial reports for the quarter ending April 2023, which also made headlines on the back of Flipkart’s performance. The Indian ecommerce player logged a double-digit revenue growth during the period, helping its parent company, Walmart, post strong international sales numbers. 

This follows a long list of statements from Walmart executives lauding the two businesses for driving its growth in the region and emerging as industry leaders in their respective domains. 

Earlier this year, Rainey said that India could pip China as Walmart’s largest international market this year, calling the country a ‘really promising opportunity in the future’. Prior to that, he said that both Flipkart and PhonePe had a huge addressable market opportunity to tap into going forward.

The optimism is not without reason. Flipkart was last valued at more than $40 Bn in 2022 and is one of the biggest names in the startup ecosystem. 

Despite being bogged down by the sharp pangs of demerger, PhonePe is the biggest digital payments player in the country, accounting for nearly half of UPI transaction value in May 2023. 

PhonePe has also made a flurry of big-ticket funding announcements so far this year. In 2023 alone, it has bagged $830 Mn in funding from the likes of General Atlantic, Ribbit Capital, Tiger Global, and TVS Capital Fund, including its parent Walmart, crossing $12 Bn in valuation. 

Meanwhile, losses continue to plague the two players. While PhonePe’s net losses surged 16.4% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 2,013.7 Cr in FY22, Flipkart’s marketplace arm raked up losses to the tune of INR 4,361 Cr in FY22, up 1.5X over the previous year. 

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