India’s ecommerce giant Flipkart’s been busy lately. After hurriedly acquiring Jabong in July for $70 Mn, it recently launched two new features too, Fliptech and Hobby Hub. And now, it has opened offices today in the US.
Flipkart’s Chief Technology Officer Peeyush Ranjan tweeted that Flipkart is now live in the Bay Area, with their new office opening in Palo Alto, California.
Snapdeal, another major player in Indian online retail industry also opened its data centres in the US in May 2016. This move was aimed at enhancing business strategy to optimise its operational efficiencies through data and analytics.
Following its rival’s move, Flipkart’s decision to set up offices in US could be potentially beneficial for finding new talent for the company. Flipkart’s ex Chief Product Officer, Punit Soni was hired from the Bay Area. Flipkart’s move is directed towards generating and receiving funding from potentially viable American investors.
It has been a busy year for the ecommerce biggie with such rapid and intense fluctuations in its valuations. Flipkart’s valuation saw a shaky front this year, with multiple investors marking it down, followed by a slight rise.
The markup by Fidelity valued Flipkart at around $9 Bn, rising from the $8.8 Bn valuation earlier, while T Rowe’s mark down pegs it at $10.3 Bn. Valic Co., another investor in Flipkart marked down their stake by 20%. Earlier, Fidelity and Valic had marked down their holdings in the company by 24% and 12% respectively in the previous quarter. Several of Flipkart’s other investors such as Morgan Stanley, Valic, and Vanguard have also marked down their stake over the last six-to-seven months.
Among India’s other startups InMobi, Zomato, Freshdesk, have offices located in the US.
