Startup Flipkart plans listing
Flipkart, a startup from India, received $3.6 billion in the next round of financing. The main investor was Softbank Corporation, as well as such market giants as Walmart and Tencent. Thanks to the new investments the company’s value reached $ 37.6 billion.
The funding round of the online retailer was the largest for a startup from India. In addition, Flipkart decided to resort to third-party financing for the first time since 2018. At the time, the company was bought by Walmart, a U.S. retail chain, and the transaction amounted to $16 billion.
According to several sources, Flipkart plans to raise about $1 billion. To do this, the company is likely to carry out an IPO, but the exact information has not yet been reported.
Flipkart has been called India’s competitor to Internet giant Amazon and is hugely popular in the local market. In 2017, its structure included a division of eBay, which operates in the country. In addition to Walmart and Softbank, the retailer’s investors are Microsoft.
The Indian technology market is actively developing, which helps to attract not only foreign companies, but also the emergence of their own promising startups.
Recently, an event of historic proportions happened in India. In just four days, the country added 6 new unicorns – companies whose valuation exceeded $1 billion.
Thanks to a round of financing, the Indian investment platform Groww has significantly increased its value, entering “unicorn” status. The startup Gupshup, which develops messenger bots, received a valuation of $1.2 billion. Online pharmacy API Holdings Pvt also increased its value to $1.5 billion.
Mohalla Tech, which offers development of various applications, was valued at $2.1 billion in another round. Meesho, which operates in the social commerce segment, now has a similar value.
Cred, a provider of financial services, has increased its value to $2.2 billion.
Such successes are surprising, especially when compared to the results of 2020, when 7 unicorns were registered for the year, and in 2019 the number was six companies.
The main investors in India’s technology segment are foreign funds, including SoftBank and Tiger Global. Such companies can clearly assess the huge potential of a country with a population of 1.3 million people. And despite the fact that India does not have a strong economy, progress is being made in terms of the spread of mobile devices and the increase in Internet users. Accordingly, the demand for IT services and online stores is also growing. At the same time, the volume of investment in the local market is still small, as is the competition among startups.
