India's Flipkart raises additional $160m
Online retailer Flipkart has raised an additional $160 million in Series E funding from new investors Sofina, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Dragoneer Investment Group and Vulcan Capital, along with participation from existing investor Tiger Global.It brings the total raised in the Series E to $360 million.
In the first phase of the round in July, the company raised $200 million from existing investors Accel Partners, Tiger Global, Iconiq Capital and Naspers.
"India's e-commerce market is at a critical inflection point and this additional capital will allow us to further expand our leadership position," CEO Sachin Bansal said in a statement.
The funding will be used to develop technology capabilities, logistics and mobile commerce.
In July, Flipkart launched its own payment gateway, PayZippy, which can handle card payments for domestic merchant websites and mobile sites. Last month it also launched an Android app for shopping on the site, which supports voice search and barcode scanning.
It has also moved into e-books and partnered with Smashwords to launch self-publishing.
Flipkart was started in 2007 as an online bookseller. Since then, it has expanded its product range to 17 categories, including electronics, footwear, accessories and apparel. According to a company statement it has more than 1 million unique visitors every day. It carries out transactions worth $500 million annually and currently has around 10 million registered users.
Flipkart has a target of generating $1 billion in gross merchandise value by 2015.
Earlier this year, Flipkart switched from online retail to become a marketplace where third-party suppliers and merchants, rather than Flipkart itself, bears the cost of inventory and storage in selling products to shoppers.
The move also allows foreign direct investment, which is not permitted in multibrand online retail. Amazon and eBay follow the marketplace model in India, although Amazon handles most inventory and storage itself in other parts of the world.
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