India’s largest and most-funded e-commerce company FlipKart Online Services Pvt. Ltd, which runs retail portal FlipKart.com,
raised an undisclosed amount from four investors. Two people close to
the development said FlipKart raised $150 million in the latest round.
The names include MIH (a part of South African media company Naspers Group) and San Francisco-based family office ICONIQ Capital, besides existing investors Tiger Global and Accel Partners. MIH and ICONIQ Capital hold a minority stake in the company.
“We are excited to complete this (its fourth) round of funding, which would fuel our growth plans, and help us achieve our stated ambition of hitting $1 billion in gross merchandise value by 2015,” Sachin Bansal, co-founder and chief executive of FlipKart, said in a statement.
Earlier this month, Mint reported that the company was in talks to raise over $100 million and the latest round would see new investors infuse capital.
While Bansal decline to say how much stake was diluted with this latest round, he said his and Binny Bansal’s joint stake is now lower than 40%. Binny Bansal is co-founder and chief operating officer of FlipKart.
Founded in 2007, FlipKart has 4,800 employees and services 50,000 orders a day. Its average order size is Rs.1,200. It has a user base of 4.5 million, of which 2.6 million are active customers (those who have shopped at least once in 12 months).
FlipKart plans to invest the money raised in expanding supply chain capacities, launching new categories, and growing the talent pool. It will also look at adding verticals such as fashion apparel and shoes.
Last year, the company was looking at raising capital, having valued itself at $1 billion. It ended up raising an undisclosed amount of money from Accel and Tiger Global, with the company valued at $850 million.
In July, The Times of India newspaper reported that FlipKart would run out of money unless it raised more money in the next nine months.
E-commerce is a capital intensive business and one needs continuous flow of capital to keep the business going, said Deepak Srinath, director of Bangalore-based boutique investment bank Viedea Capital Advisors (Pvt.) Ltd. “For a sustainable, fast-growing e-commerce business, this is the kind of money a company needs. The funding round is in line with capital requirements of a company like FlipKart,” said Srinath.
Meanwhile, FlipKart expects to become operationally profitable in 2013. It will be operationally profitable on all the fixed and variable costs associated to delivery of an order, Sachin Bansal had told Mint earlier this month.
The names include MIH (a part of South African media company Naspers Group) and San Francisco-based family office ICONIQ Capital, besides existing investors Tiger Global and Accel Partners. MIH and ICONIQ Capital hold a minority stake in the company.
“We are excited to complete this (its fourth) round of funding, which would fuel our growth plans, and help us achieve our stated ambition of hitting $1 billion in gross merchandise value by 2015,” Sachin Bansal, co-founder and chief executive of FlipKart, said in a statement.
Sachin Bansal, co-founder and chief executive of FlipKart.
In its earlier three fund-raising rounds, FlipKart had raised over $80 million.IndiaDigitalReview.com, an online digital industry forum, reported on Friday that FlipKart.com
raised $150 million in the fourth round, led by South African media
group Naspers and existing investor Tiger Global. It cited multiple
unnamed sources.Earlier this month, Mint reported that the company was in talks to raise over $100 million and the latest round would see new investors infuse capital.
While Bansal decline to say how much stake was diluted with this latest round, he said his and Binny Bansal’s joint stake is now lower than 40%. Binny Bansal is co-founder and chief operating officer of FlipKart.
Founded in 2007, FlipKart has 4,800 employees and services 50,000 orders a day. Its average order size is Rs.1,200. It has a user base of 4.5 million, of which 2.6 million are active customers (those who have shopped at least once in 12 months).
FlipKart plans to invest the money raised in expanding supply chain capacities, launching new categories, and growing the talent pool. It will also look at adding verticals such as fashion apparel and shoes.
Last year, the company was looking at raising capital, having valued itself at $1 billion. It ended up raising an undisclosed amount of money from Accel and Tiger Global, with the company valued at $850 million.
In July, The Times of India newspaper reported that FlipKart would run out of money unless it raised more money in the next nine months.
E-commerce is a capital intensive business and one needs continuous flow of capital to keep the business going, said Deepak Srinath, director of Bangalore-based boutique investment bank Viedea Capital Advisors (Pvt.) Ltd. “For a sustainable, fast-growing e-commerce business, this is the kind of money a company needs. The funding round is in line with capital requirements of a company like FlipKart,” said Srinath.
Meanwhile, FlipKart expects to become operationally profitable in 2013. It will be operationally profitable on all the fixed and variable costs associated to delivery of an order, Sachin Bansal had told Mint earlier this month.
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