- Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT) is upping its stake in Flipkart by leading a $1.2 billion round for the India-based grocery e-commerce chain
Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT) is upping its stake in Flipkart by leading a $1.2 billion round for the India-based grocery e-commerce chain. Two years ago, Walmart acquired about 77% of Flipkart for $16 billion.
Some of Flipkart’s other existing shareholders include Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal, Tencent Holdings Limited, Tiger Global Management, and Microsoft. This funding round values Flipkart at $24.9 billion post-money according to TechCrunch.
At the time of the original deal, Walmart President & CEO Doug McMillon pointed out that India is one of the most attractive retail markets in the world, given its size and growth rate.
The other investors in this round were undisclosed. This funding round will enable Flipkart to grow its marketplace in India.
“We’re 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 chief executive Kalyan Krishnamurthy in a statement via TechCrunch. “Since Walmart’s initial investment in Flipkart, we have greatly expanded our offer through technology, partnerships, and new services. Today, we lead in electronics and fashion and are rapidly accelerating share in other general merchandise categories and grocery, all while providing increasingly seamless payment and delivery options for our customers. We will continue innovating to bring the next 200 million Indian shoppers online.”
Flipkart is known for competing against Amazon in India. For the financial year ended in March, the number of active customers jumped 45% compared to the same period a year earlier. And Flipkart said that it is now seeing over 1.5 billion visits per month and they are making 30% more transactions.
Locally, Flipkart is competing against JioMart. JioMart is a joint venture between India-based retail chain Reliance Retail and telecommunications company Jio Platforms. JioMart launched this year and expanded to over 200 cities since then.
At the time of the original deal, Walmart President & CEO Doug McMillon pointed out that India is one of the most attractive retail markets in the world, given its size and growth rate.
Launched in 2007, Flipkart is known for driving India’s e-commerce revolution. And the company is known for running other well-known platforms like Myntra, Jabong, and PhonePe. And Flipkart’s supply chain unit eKart serves hundreds of cities and makes hundreds of thousands of deliveries every day.
