In perhaps the largest investment ever for an Indian internet company, e-commerce major Flipkart raised around $2.5 billion from Japanese telecom and internet conglomerate SoftBank. The fresh capital extends the size of Flipkart's financing round, which was announced in April this year, all the way to $4 billion.
While neither of the parties involved disclosed the exact amount being ploughed in by the Masayoshi Son-led group, sources said the number would total up to $2.5-2.6 billion, comprising a mix of primary and secondary capital. The fund-raise eclipses the highs set by Flipkart and Paytm when they both raised over $1.4 billion earlier this year. The investment gives the website a massive backing to fight the looming threat its home market being snatched away by Jeff Bezos' Amazon. The capital infusion is likely to further intensify the battle right before the festive season, opening up new battlegrounds for the two players.
Owned by Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal, the e-commerce major has raised over $6 billion in cash since starting out in 2007, by far the highest by any Indian start-up and among the highest by any start-up globally. Flipkart, which also owns fashion retailers Myntra and Jabong as well as mobile payments firm PhonePe and eBay’s India platform, had raised $1.4 billion from Tencent Holdings Ltd, eBay Inc. and Microsoft Corp. in April.
“This is a monumental deal for Flipkart and India. Very few economies globally attract such overwhelming interest from top-tier investors. It is recognition of India’s unparalleled potential to become a leader in technology and e-commerce on a massive scale. SoftBank’s proven track record of partnering with transformative technology leaders has earned it the reputation of being a visionary investor,” Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal said in a joint statement.
With SoftBank’s entry, Binny, in particular, as well as Sachin will play a more active role at Flipkart, the people cited above said. Flipkart will also end up with five strong voices on its board: SoftBank, Naspers-Tencent, Tiger Global, Accel and the Bansals.
