India’s largest e-commerce company Flipkart.com has raised $700 million in funding from a slew of investors, including UK-based investment management firm Baillie Gifford, US-based VC fund Greenoaks Capital, Steadview Capital, T Rowe Price Associates, and Qatar Investment Authority. The round also saw participations from existing investors DST Global, GIC, Iconiq Capital, and Tiger Global.
The funds will be used towards long-term strategic investments in India and also to build a world-class technology company, it said in a statement.
The firm has also informed that its parent Flipkart Ltd has filed with Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) of Singapore for conversion to a public company (this is a mandatory procedure for all companies, where the number of shareholders exceeds 50). The firm, however, added that this is no indication of any upcoming IPO or of any corporate activity that the company is engaged in either in Singapore or any other part of the world.
Founded in 2007 by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal (not related), Flipkart offers over 20 million products cross 70 categories including books, media, consumer electronics and lifestyle. With 20,000 employees on board, it claims to have 26 million registered users clocking over 8 million daily visits. It further claims to be doing 5 million shipments per month.
Flipkart had hit an annual revenue run rate of $1 billion in February this year, which means it clocked sales worth over Rs 500 crore that month. Its previous milestone of doing sales worth Rs 100 crore happened in June 2012.
Flipkart had in July this year raised $1 billion in funding co-led by its existing investors Tiger Global and Naspers, with participations from GIC, one of the two sovereign wealth funds of Singapore, besides Accel Partners, DST Global, ICONIQ Capital, Morgan Stanley Investment Management and Sofina. Earlier, it had netted $210 million led by DST Global, Tiger Global, Naspers and Iconiq Capital.
Last year, Flipkart had raised $360 million in two tranches from Dragoneer Investment Group, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Sofina, Vulcan Capital, and Tiger Global.
In 2012, it had bagged around $150 million from Tiger Global, Naspers, Accel Partners and Iconiq Capital. Prior to that, it had scooped around $32 million in multiple tranches from Accel Partners, Tiger Global besides its angel investors.
In May, Flipkart had acquired Myntra Designs Pvt Ltd, the company which runs the online fashion and apparel shop Myntra.com.
