E-commerce company Flipkart is set to announce a $1bn venture round next week that would be the largest ever raised by an India-based company, the Economic Times reported yesterday.
About half the funding will come from investment firm Tiger Global Management and venture firms DST and Accel Partners, all three of which are existing backers, though it is not yet clear whether the round will also include Naspers, the internet company that now holds an 18% stake in Flipkart.
The rest will be provided by newer investors, which are said to include investment firm T Rowe Price and Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC, both of which contributed to a $210m round raised by Flipkart in May. The round would be the third largest ever, behind Facebook’s $1.5bn round in January 2011, and the $1.2bn raised by Uber in June this year.
The deal is done,” a source told ET. “An announcement could be made in a week or two.”
Like Amazon, Flipkart initially focused on books when it was founded in 2007 but has also branched out into a range of other products.
The May round, which raised its overall funding to $750m, was used to support the acquisition of fashion and lifestyle e-commerce company Myntra and the newest capital will be used to help Flipkart expand as it wards off local competitor Snapdeal, and Amazon and Walmart, both of which are set to shortly increase their activities in India.
“This is the war chest to consolidate Flipkart’s position in the country – the sector needs long-term, patient investors who can back with big money,” a second source told ET.