The Flipkart Funding juggernaut keeps on rolling and it is setting benchmarks, not only in India, but probably across the world. According to an ET report that cites 2 people, Flipkart may have raised over $ 1 Billion in funding from new and existing investors.
If the reports are true, this is by far the largest funding achieved by an Indian E-Commerce company and probably one of the biggest across the world.
Half of the funding will come from their existing investors Tiger Global, DST Global and Accel Partners, while the rest will be put in by several new investors.
This significant amount of funding will not only consolidate Flipkart’s position in the country, but will now have a war-chest that will put them in a very strong position in comparison to other large players including Amazon Marketplace and eBay backed Snapdeal.
The details as to where Flipkart will use this funding is still unclear, however, it is quite obvious that they will make every investment needed to maintain their top position in red-hot Indian eCommerce market.
This will be Flipkart’s 8th round of funding. Till date Flipkart has managed to raise a total of USD 1.751 billion funding.
Flipkart’s 8 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 |
Eighth Round | Tiger Global, DST Global, Accel Partners (plus other new investors) | July 2014 | USD 1000 Million |
Total | USD 1751 Million |
There is no doubt that Indian eCommerce market is growing at break-neck speed, however, the kind of fund raising Flipkart is able to raise clearly shows that they are going from strength to strength. In march of this year company crossed $1 Billion in sales run-rate and from various developments that have happened in past few months, that number could even have doubled by now!
Some of the Flipkart initiatives in 2014:
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Exclusive Launch of Moto G, Moto E and Moto X phones – Sold over 10 lakh phones in 5 months
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Exclusive launch of Xiaomi phones in India
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Launch of Flipkart First special privilege subscription service
Side Note: We really hope that with such kind of fund-raising they put an end to issues that their site faces during product launches. Yesterday’s Xiaomi’s Mi3 launch had brought their servers down, and they should have been ready for it!