Flipkart Internet receives $111 million in new fund infusion, Retail News, ET Retail

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Flipkart Internet, the marketplace arm of Walmart-owned ecommerce firm Flipkart, received a cash infusion of about Rs 924 crore ($111 million) in two parts from its related entities based in Singapore in January, regulatory filings with the Registrar of Companies (ROC) showed.

Flipkart has a number of units in India that run a variety of businesses like logistics and the ecommerce marketplace. The fresh capital came from the firm’s related Singapore-based entities on January 8 this year. Two resolutions to infuse capital into the firm were approved on December 20 and December 22 last year, the documents showed.

The infusion comes as rival Amazon’s investment in its India entities this year have already crossed Rs 1,000 crore, including a Rs 830 crore infusion into Amazon Seller Services, the entity that runs the Amazon marketplace in India. Amazon also invested Rs 350 crore in the entity that runs its fintech unit, Amazon Pay, in January.

Flipkart is also in talks to raise as much as $1 billion, with parent Walmart committing to inject $600 million, ET reported on December 21. This would be the first fundraise for India’s largest online retailer since 2021, when it closed a $3.6 billion funding round at a valuation of $37.6 billion.

Flipkart’s valuation was adjusted to $33 billion after payments leader PhonePe was separated from the group in December 2022. The fresh fundraise is likely to value Flipkart at about 5-10% premium to its latest valuation.

Last year, Walmart also facilitated a $750 million one-time payout for Flipkart employees as part of PhonePe’s funding round and separation from the group.

In its earnings call for the fourth quarter, parent Walmart had said its international sales growth was led by Flipkart, Mexico’s Walmex, and China, with strong performance in festive events.

“India, Walmex (Mexico) and China are the three growth leaders, and are expected to account for approximately three-fourth of international growth over the next several years,” Walmart’s chief financial officer John David Rainey had said at the time.

Flipkart Internet reported a 42% growth in operating revenue for financial year 2023 to Rs 14,845 crore, while its total loss narrowed by 9% to Rs 4,026 crore.