Flipkart Group raises $1.2 billion from Walmart

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Bentonville, USA – Bangalore, India: Flipkart Group raises $1.2 billion from Walmart led investor group on Tuesday, according to a statement.

The additional $1.2 billion equity investment equity will support Flipkart Group’s continued development of its e-commerce marketplace as it anticipates more demands ahead as India emerges post the Covid-19 crisis.

Flipkart Group’s majority owner Walmart led the investment, along with a group of existing shareholders with a $24.9 billion post-money valuation. The funding will happen in two tranches during the rest of the fiscal year.

“We’re grateful for the strong backing of our shareholders as we continue to build our platform and serve the growing needs of Indian consumers during these challenging times,” Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy said.

“Since Walmart’s initial investment in Flipkart, we have greatly expanded our offer through technology, partnerships and new services. Today, we lead in electronics and fashion, and are rapidly accelerating share in other general merchandise categories and grocery, all while providing increasingly seamless payment and delivery options for our customers. We will continue innovating to bring the next 200 million Indian shoppers online,” added Krishnamurthy.

Founded in 2007, the Flipkart Group includes Flipkart, digital payments platform PhonePe, fashion specialty site Myntra and eKart, a logistics and delivery service focused on solving the last mile in India’s Tier II and Tier III cities. In 2018, Walmart Inc. invested $16 billion for a majority stake in the group.

Flipkart recently surpassed 1.5 billion visits per month and reported 45-percent growth in monthly active customers and 30-percent growth in transactions per customer for FY20.

The company is democratizing commerce by providing sellers and MSMEs access to a national market and by investing in technology such as voice assistants and local language interfaces to help make shopping easier for non-English speaking customers.

Today, Flipkart offers 150 million products across more than 80 categories, and has pioneered customer-centric services such as Cash-on-Delivery, No-Cost EMI and easy returns. PhonePe recently reported annualized total payments value (TPV) of $180 billion on more than 500 million monthly transactions.

“Flipkart continues to leverage its culture of innovation to accelerate growth and enable millions of customers, sellers, merchants and small businesses to prosper and be a part of India’s digital transformation,” said Judith McKenna, President and CEO – Walmart International.

“Kalyan and team have a clear vision and are relentlessly focused on giving Indians frictionless choice in how they shop and sell online. We’re excited to see what the future holds as they continue their journey to become India’s most trusted eCommerce marketplace,” added McKenna.

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