In preparation of the festive season in India, which is one of the busiest times of the year for e-commerce websites in the country, Flipkart is going on an investment spree, and has received $560.45 million from Walmart as part of a $1.2 billion funding round announced in July. Tech blog Entracker, which has seen the regulatory filings, suggests that Walmart has been allotted 39,57,960 equity shares in Flipkart’s Singapore unit at $141.6 per share.
This is just one part of a series of investments, which has seen Flipkart acquire $8.14 million from Qatar Investment Authority or QIA’s subsidiary INQ Holdings (in exchange for 57,477 shares) and $62.8 million from Tencent, despite of the rising anti China sentiment in the country.
Now, this newly raised capital will help the company better compete with Amazon, especially with the festive season approaching nearer and nearer. Moreover, it will also help the company in expanding its new B2B platform- Flipkart Wholesale, which has recently entered 12 new cities and is looking to add categories like groceries, home appliances, and more, by the end of the year.
It is also possible that this investment round could entail to something much bigger, as reports have been emerging that suggest that Flipkart might go public as soon as next year. Thus, this might as well be the last private funding that the company receives. Entracker suggests that Flipkart may be aiming for a $40 billion -$45 billion valuation.
Walmart has increased its stake in the company to 82.3%, followed by Tiger Global which commands 4.72% of the company. Thus, if Flipkart in fact goes public next year, Walmart stands to make a fortune out of it, and that could be a big reason why it is increasing its stake in the company by making these large investments. The company had poured $560 million in the platform in July, meaning that Walmart has invested $1.3 billion in Flipkart in 2020 alone.
