Wow! It’s amazing to see Flipkart’s prowess in raising large funding rounds.
Interestingly, just 4 days back, at the Myntra acquisition press conference Flipkart had announced that they will not be raising any funds, but it seems they have taken a sudden U-turn. Flipkart made an announcement today that they have raised $210 million investment round led by Russian investment firm DST Global.
This will be Flipkart’s seventh round of funding and largest till date. They have in total raised a whopping USD 751 million, largest (by a fair margin) by any Indian online company till date.
Here is the updated chart of their 7 rounds of funding:
| Round | Who Funded | Date | Amount |
| First Round | Accel India | 2009 | USD 1 Million |
| Second Round | Tiger Global | 2010 | USD 10 Million |
| Third Round | Tiger Global | June 2011 | USD 20 Million |
| Fourth Round | Naspers / ICONIQ Capital | August 2012 | USD 150 Million |
| Fifth Round | Naspers, Accel Partners, Tiger Global, and ICONIQ Capital | July 2013 | USD 200 Million |
| Sixth Round | Dragoneer Investment Group, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Sofina and Vulcan Capital, Tiger Global | Oct 2013 | USD 160 Million |
| Seventh Round | DST Global | May 2014 | USD 210 Million |
| Total | USD 751 Million |
Russian Tycoon, Yuri Miller and founder of DST Global said in regards to the investment, “Flipkart is one of the fastest growing internet companies globally led by visionary founders. It is well placed to capitalize on the significant opportunity in the fast growing Indian ecommerce market.”
Sachin Bansal, co-founder and CEO, Flipkart, said, “With the addition of DST Global, we have further strengthened our investor base that consists of world-class investors. We are excited to be a part of the DST portfolio featuring companies that are leading social and ecommerce innovators. Led by a visionary like Yuri Milner, DST brings a global perspective into each of their Internet investments along with a unique understanding of the businesses they invest in and we look forward to working with their team.”
Binny Bansal, co-founder and COO, Flipkart added “Flipkart has changed the way people shop in India. Today, we are the first choice in online shopping for millions of customers across the length and breadth of the country. We met our GMV run rate of $1 billion, a year before target, reinforcing our leadership position. The funding further strengthens our capabilities to deliver on our next stage of growth.”
Flipkart’s Tentative Valuation
At what valuation DST invested their monies is not know, but here is a rough calculation. In October, when they raised their sixth round of funding, investors valued them at nearly five times (5X) of their total sales. Prior to that investment Flipkart had a GMV of around Rs. 2000 crore, and they were valued at roughly Rs. 9920 crore.
Flipkart had recently announced that they met $1 Billion GMV target. Taking this into consideration, even by very conservative estimates, Flipkart may have been valued anywhere between 3x – 4x of their total sales, giving them a valuation easily in the region of $3 – $4 Billion (Rs. 17,000 to Rs. 23,000 crore)
This is one growth story that one can only dream of!
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