India's Flipkart raises $700m round
Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart has completed another round of funding worth $700 million from a combination of new and existing investors. The company has now raised $1.9 billion in 2014 and around $2.8 billion since inception.
The latest round - which is said to value the company at $11 billion - included new investors Baillie Gifford, Greenoaks Capital, Steadview Capital, T. Rowe Price Associates and Qatar Investment Authority. The existing backers that took part are DST Global, GIC Private, Iconiq Capital and Tiger Global Management.
"As with previous funds raised, these funds will be used towards long-term strategic investments in India and to build a world-class technology company, delivering superior customer experiences," Flipkart said in a statement.
The company has also filed with the Singapore authorities for conversion into a public entity. This is compulsory once the number of shareholders exceeds 50, but does not necessarily indicate an imminent IPO.
In May, Flipkart received $210 million in funding led by DST with participation from Tiger Global, South Africa-based media group Naspers and Iconiq. This valued the business at a reported $2.5 billion, up from a valuation of $1.6 billion for the Series E round of $360 million, which closed in October 2013.
The company's valuation reached a heady $7 billion for the next round in July, which saw Tiger Global Naspers, GIC, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, DST, Accel Partners, Iconiq and Sofina put in $1 billion. Accel was Flipkart's first backer, committing $1 million five years ago.
The company was set up in 2007 by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal - they are not related - who were previously software engineers at Amazon. They each contributed INR200,000 (about $3,229) to pay for a website and formed Flipkart Online Service. Now Flipkart is a diversified e-commerce platform offering everything from electronics, to apparel to sporting goods.
Flipkart sells over 20 million products across 70 categories. It has 26 million registered users, 8 million daily visitors to its website, and makes 5 million shipments each month, all handled by a team of 20,000 employees from 13 warehouses. There have been several bolt-on acquisition intended to broaden the customer base and product offering, notably Myntra, which was bought for $300 million in May.
Flipkart is not the only cash rich player in its industry. The day after the $1 billion round, Amazon pledged $2 billion to its India operations. In October, domestic rivals Snapdeal received a $627 million investment from SoftBank Corp, taking its total funding past $1 billion.
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