Media group Bennett, Coleman & Co (BCC) has provided Rs 2.6bn ($38.8m) of funding and advertising-for-equity for India-based e-commerce company Flipkart, Livemint has reported, citing a regulatory filing.
Founded in 2007, Flipkart operates an e-commerce platform that offers more than 80 million consumer products including books, fashion items, appliances and electronics.
The company had disclosed a total of roughly $3.1bn in funding prior to BCC’s investment, from investors including e-commerce and media firm Naspers and IDG Ventures India, the local venture capital affiliate of media company International Data Group.
The filing did not reveal the valuation at which BCC invested, but several of Flipkart’s private equity backers including have downgraded their valuation of the company over the past year.
Flipkart last raised funding at a $15bn valuation in late 2015, but T Rowe Price, Fidelity and Valic had all lowered their assessments of that valuation before a mutual fund managed by Morgan Stanley lowered its own estimate to $5.54bn in November 2016.
BCC, also known as Times Group, provided 10% of the new funding upfront to buy an equity warrant in December 2016 and will supply the rest when it converts the warrant to shares.
Flipkart is reportedly in the process of raising between $500m and $1bn in new funding, with US-based big box retailer Wal-Mart said to be among the interested parties.