Leave alone months and years, ecommerce industry is escalating every day. After raising massive funding rounds last year, Flipkart is now all set to raise a new funding round of $1.7 Bn in coming months. According to the sources close to the development, Flipkart’s new round will see participation of new and its existing investors. Growing massively since past two years after breaking the funding records in India ecommerce, Flipkart’s new fundraise will value it around $15 Bn.
This news comes in just a day after, reports of Snapdeal raising new $400 Mn round came into light.
Experts believe that the new capital will be used to consolidate its position in the marketplace by acquiring new ventures, enhancing in-house technology development and funding deep discounts for consumers.
Flipkart’s Fundraising journey
October 2009: $1 Mn in Series A from Accel Partners
June 2010: $10 Mn in Series B from Tiger Global
June 2011: $20 Mn in Series C from Tiger Global
August 2012: $150 Mn From MIH (Naspers), ICONIQ Capital, Accel Partners and Tiger Global in Series D
July 2013: Raised $200 Mn from existing investors including Tiger Global, Naspers and Accel Partners in Series E
October 2013: Raised $160 Mn and completed Series E round from Dragoneer Investment Group, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Sofina and Vulcan Capital; & Existing investor Tiger Global.
May 2014: Raised Series F from DST Global, the round also saw participation of existing investors Tiger Global, Naspers, and Iconiq Capital.
July 2014 : Raised $ 1 Bn from Tiger Global, Naspers with Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC, along with existing investors Accel Partners, DST Global, ICONIQ Capital, Morgan Stanley Investment Management and Sofina in Series G
December 2014: Raised $700 Mn from Baillie Gifford, Greenoaks Capital, Steadview Capital, T. Rowe Price Associates and Qatar Investment Authority and it’s existing investors DST Global, GIC, ICONIQ Capital and Tiger Global.
Earlier last month, there were reports that Flipkart might raise $5Bn through IPO.
Recently, online marketplace, Shopclues also raised a $100 Mn funding from Tiger Global and its existing investors. And if rumors are to be believed Flipkart is in talks to acquire Shopclues. This will be again a common investor play.
India has already seen a number of interesting activities in the ecommerce segment with number of players raising funds and even acquisitions. The niche segment has also started attracting a lot of interest. This is evident from the recent funding of ecommerce players dealing in baby products Firstcry and Hopscotch raised funding and later Mahindra Group acquired Babyoye.
With government also coming in with number of steps to help ecommerce boom in the country, the segment is definitely going to glorify further in the coming future.
