Flipkart Group on Tuesday closed an additional 1.2 billion dollar equity round to support continued development of its e-commerce marketplace as India emerges from the Covid-19 crisis.
The investment is led by Walmart, Flipkart Group’s majority owner, along with a group of existing shareholders and values the company at 24.9 billion dollars post-money. It will be funded in two tranches over the remainder of the fiscal year.”We are grateful for the strong backing of our shareholders as we continue to build our platform and serve the growing needs of Indian consumers during these challenging times,” said Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy.
“Since Walmart’s initial investment in Flipkart, we have greatly expanded our offer through technology, partnerships and new services. We will continue innovating to bring the next 200 million Indian shoppers online.”Founded in 2007, the Flipkart Group includes Flipkart, digital payments platform PhonePe, fashion specialty site Myntra and eKart, a logistics and delivery service focused on solving the last mile in India’s tier 2 and 3 cities. In 2018, Walmart Inc invested 16 billion dollars for a majority stake in the group.Flipkart recently surpassed 1.5 billion visits per month and reported 45 per cent growth in monthly active customers and 30 per cent growth in transactions per customer for FY20. It offers 150 million products across more than 80 categories.
“Flipkart continues to leverage its culture of innovation to accelerate growth and enable millions of customers, sellers, merchants and small businesses to prosper and be a part of India’s digital transformation,” said Judith McKenna, President and CEO of Walmart International.
“We are excited to see what the future holds as they continue their journey to become India’s most trusted e-commerce marketplace.”
