Valuation of up to $37.6 billion! Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart successfully raised $3.6 billion

Driven by the rapid spread of smartphones and cheap mobile data deals, India has seen huge growth in e-commerce businesses, selling everything from groceries to holidays .

Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart said on Monday it had raised $3.6 billion in its latest round of financing , according to the Wall Street Journal.

It is reported that investors in this round of financing include Singapore Government Investment Corporation, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Qatar Investment Authority, SoftBank, Tiger Fund and Walmart.

As the largest round of financing for an Indian startup to date, this latest round of financing also increased the company's market value to US$37.6 billion , which is more than double the amount Walmart paid when it took control of Flipkart three years ago ( Walmart acquired 77% of Flipkart's shares for US$16 billion in 2018 ) !

As India's leading e-commerce platform , Flipkart also operates a payment application in India . It is widely believed that this is a pre-IPO financing for the Indian e-commerce group . According to Reuters, Flipkart plans to list on the public market as early as early next year.

It is revealed that Flipkart initially intended to raise only $1 billion after entering the market to raise funds at the beginning of this year. However, as the biggest competitor in the Indian e-commerce market, Amazon has invested more than $6.5 billion in the South Asian market, which has greatly stimulated the scale and speed of Flipkart's financing.

Since the Walmart deal, the company has added more items to its online store, including groceries and furniture. Flipkart has also increased warehouse capacity to take on rivals such as Amazon.com Inc’s Indian business and local Reliance Industries Ltd.

Flipkart said that “this investment reflects the confidence of global investors in Indian e-commerce, which has continued to accelerate over the past year” and that safe and convenient shopping methods have become a priority.

Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy said: "The new funds will support the company's expansion plans as we focus on accelerating the growth of millions of Indian small and medium-sized businesses as we serve consumers." As part of the new fundraising, Flipkart also gave its employees options worth $80.5 million in stock options.

India

Flipkart

Financing