Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Flipkart secures largest investment in Indian e-commerce; Raises USD 200 million

Flipkart secures largest investment in Indian e-commerce; Raises USD 200 million
Flipkart, India’s largest e-commerce platform, has raised USD 200 million from its existing investors including Naspers, Accel and Tiger Global. It is the largest amount to ever be invested in an e-commerce company in India. The funds will be used for building and strengthening Flipkart’s technology capabilities, bolstering the robust supply chain and developing the talent pool.
Sachin Bansal, Co-founder and CEO of Flipkart.com said, “This investment validates the belief that our investors have not only in our capabilities as a market leader – but also in the potential of e-commerce in India. We are building a world-class organization that has always led from the front, taking advantage of and even creating a plethora of opportunities for the e-commerce industry. With this investment, we can now take Flipkart to the next level, pioneering technology and supply-chain innovations that will change the face of online shopping. This will not only enable us to reach our goal of $1 billion GMV by 2015 but also help us achieve bigger milestones in the future.”
Binny Bansal, Co-founder and COO of Flipkart said, "Over the last six years Flipkart has grown in strength and today we are a company that has defined e-commerce in India – and we continue to remain leaders in this space. The growth potential is enormous and our investors share this vision. Each round of funding has come at a strategic point during our growth. Our aim is to continuously improve the shopping experience for customers and provide sellers with a highly scalable platform on which to do business.”
Flipkart Facts: 2013
·         Registered users - 96 lakhs

·         More than 10 lakh unique visitors every day

·         Peak items shipped in a day - 1.3 lakhs (June 2013)

·         Launched PayZippy, an online payments solution

·         New categories that we have entered (June 2012 – 2013): Apparel, Footwear, Toys, Accessories, Sports and fitness, and eBooks



About Flipkart: Flipkart.com is the largest e-commerce platform in India and has been operational since 2007. Today it offers products across 17+ categories along with a slew of innovative features.

About the investors:
Founded in 1915, Naspers is a leading multinational media and internet group with operations in more than 133 countries. Listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) since September 1994, it also has an ADR listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The group’s principal operations are in e-commerce, pay-television & related technologies and print media. It also has minority investments in listed, integrated social-network platforms Tencent (SEHK 0700) and Mail.ru (LSE: MAIL).

Tiger Global is a fundamentally oriented, global investment firm.  The Firm deploys capital in two businesses – private equity partnerships and public equity funds.  Tiger Global’s private equity partnerships have ten-year investment horizons and invest in growth companies in the global Internet and technology sectors.  Tiger Global’s private investments include Yandex, Facebook, 360buy, Linkedin, Despegar, SurveyMonkey, Mail.ru Group, Ctrip, New Oriental, Square, Makemytrip, Justdial, Netshoes, MercadoLibre, Trendyol, and Eventbrite.  The Firm’s public equity funds focus on long-term trends in the technology, telecom, media, retail and consumer sectors.  Tiger Global was founded in 2001 and is based in New York.
Founded in 1983 and managing over $9.6 billion in capital, Accel Partners has a long history of partnering with outstanding entrepreneurs and management teams to build world-class businesses. Accel today invests globally using dedicated  teams and market-specific strategies for local geographies, with offices in Palo Alto, California, New York City, London and Bangalore, as well as in China via its partnership with IDG-Accel. Accel has helped entrepreneurs build over 300 successful companies, many of which have defined their categories, including 99designs, Actuate, AdMob, Agile Software, Alfresco, Angry Birds (Rovio),  Atlassian, BBN, Bonobos, Braintree, Brightcove, Cloudera, ComScore, Diapers.com (Quidsi), Dropbox, Etsy, Facebook, Fusion-IO, Gameforge, GlamMedia, Groupon, Imperva, Infinera, Interwoven, IronPlanet, JBoss, Kayak,Lookout, Macromedia, metroPCS, MoPub, OPOWER, Polycom/PictureTel, Playfish, Portal Software, QlikTech, Rapt, Real Networks, Redback, Responsys, Riverbed, Spotify, Squarespace, SunRun, Trulia, UUNet, Veritas, Walmart.com, Webroot, Wonga, XenSource and Zimbra.In India, Accel has made investments in companies such as Ace Creative Learning, Babyoye, Collectabillia, EduPristine, enStage, Flipkart, FreshDesk, Forus Health, HealthcareMagic, Kirusa, Mitra Biotech, MuSigma, Myntra, Perfint, Probe, PropTiger, QwikCilver, SureWaves, TaxiForSure.com, Trivone, Vinculum and Virident.
ICONIQ Capital is a global multi-family office, headquartered in San Francisco, California.