India’s e-commerce giant Flipkart in a fresh round of funding has raised $700 million with investments coming from new investors like: Baillie Gifford, Greenoaks Capital, Steadview Capital, T. Rowe Price Associates? and Qatar Investment Authority, along with existing investors: DST Global, GIC, ICONIQ Capital and Tiger Global.
With this news came the news of the company filing for conversion to a public company in Singapore as it is incorporated in the country. Flipkart has filed with the country’s business registrar and regulator for conversion to a public company. It explained that this was a mandatory procedure for all companies with more than 50 shareholders, and dismissed suggestions it was eyeing an initial public offering (IPO).
Flipkart said the funds raised will be used towards long-term strategic investments in India and to build a world-class technology company, delivering superior customer experiences.
This is the third funding which Flipkart received this year with $1 billion raised in July being the biggest and in total having raised close to $3 billion since it founded in 2007. Flipkart is now valued at about $11 billion (Rs 69,000 crore), more than some of the country’s largest companies, including Godrej, which is estimated to be worth Rs 31,000 crore and Dabur India, valued at about Rs 41,000 crore.
This year has been truly remarkable for the Indian e-commerce players and the market has been more competitive with investments coming in for each company from all over the world. Snapdeal recently received $627 million from Softbank and Amazon promised to put in $2 billion for operations in the country.