DST leads $210m round for India's Flipkart

Existing investors Tiger Global Management, media group Naspers, and Iconiq Capital also took part.

This represents Flipkart's second large round of funding in less than a year. The company previously raised $360 million in a Series E round, the second tranche of which closed last October. This latest investment is reported to value the company at around $2.5 billion, up from $1.6 billion in the previous round.

Flipkart has so far raised around $780 million from PE and VC firms. Other previous investors include Accel Partners, Dragoneer Investment Group, Morgan Stanley, Sofina and Vulcan Capital.

The investment is the latest in a string of high-profile moves that are expected to contribute to consolidation within India's e-commerce space.

First, Flipkart rival Snapdeal managed to raise a $100 million round which included new investors such as Temasek Holdings, BlackRock, and Premji Invest. Then Flipkart itself acquired VC-backed fashion site Myntra in deal which valued the business at $300 million.

"Flipkart is one of the fastest growing internet companies globally led by visionary founders," said Yuri Milner, founder of DST, in a statement. "It is well placed to capitalize on the significant opportunity in the fast growing Indian ecommerce market."

According to a September 2013 report by Technopak Advisors, the Indian e-commerce market is worth $1 billion, or 0.2% of the overall retail market. It is projected to reach $56 billion, or 6.5%, by 2023.

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• Topics
• Consumer
• South Asia
• Technology
• Early-stage
• Venture
• Consumer
• India
• Venture
• TMT
• Tiger Global Management