After suffering seven successive markdowns, India's largest e-commerce company Flipkart saw some relief with two US-based mutual funds marking up the value of their investment in the company in quick succession. After Fidelity Rutland Square Trust II hiked the value of its investment in the company in July this year, Valic Co has also increased the valuation of its share in Flipkart by 10%. After the mark-up by Valic, Flipkart's valuation has risen to around $11.5 billion.
Earlier, Fidelity Rutland Square Trust II fund hiked the value of its investment in the e-commerce company by 2.8% to $84.29 apiece at the end of May from $82 three months ago.
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The jump in Flipkart's valuation comes after several mark downs with the last one being from T. Rowe Price, which had lowered the value of its holding in the company by a 20% to $96.29 per share over two tranches. Previously, a fund managed by Morgan Stanley had reduced the value of its investments twice while Fidelity Rutland Square Trust II, Valic Co, and T Rowe Price, too, had each lowered the value of their holdings in Flipkart once.
The successive markdowns by these investors pulled Flipkart's valuation down from $15.2 billion in September 2015 to $10.3 billion in June this year.
Other leading investors in Flipkart include Tiger Global Management, Naspers, Accel Partners, Iconiq Capital, GIC, DST Global and Sofina Societe, among others.
The valuation see-saw comes at a time when Flipkart is reportedly trying to raise fresh funds while it is locked in an intense battle with rivals such as as SoftBank-backed Snapdeal and the local arm of Amazon Inc to maintain leadership in the Indian e-commerce market.
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