After raising a massive $200 million investment few months back, E-commerce major Flipkart has now raised an additional $160 million from new investors Dragoneer Investment Group, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Sofina and Vulcan Capital with participation from existing investor Tiger Global.
With this, the company has raised a total $360 million in its fifth round of funding, the largest investment raised by an Internet company in India, emulating InMobi’s $200 million investment from Softbank in September 2011. The company plans to use the capital raised to improve its technology and supply chain capabilities, enhance its end user experience and for hiring.
This investment follows a Livemint report from last week, which had suggested that Flipkart was in talks to raise $125 million from existing investors and two other US-based investors, citing two people close to the development. A unnnamed source had told the publication that the last fund raise had a clause indicating an additional investment of $100 million to $150 million.
As of now, Flipkart has raised a total $541 million from five rounds of funding, which includes a reported $150 million funding in August 2012, $20 million in June 2011, $10 million in June 2010 and $1 million in 2009. Naspers had earlier confirmed that it had invested 858 million rand (around $102.1 million) in Flipkart in return for 10% stake in the company in August 2012.
Over the past year, Flipkart has added new categories like men’s apparel, footwear and sports & fitness category, home furnishings, women’s apparel to its website. It had also re-introduced home appliances category offering only low cost electronic appliances like Water Purifiers, Iron Boxes, Vacuum cleaners and Voltage stabilizers, after pulling out of the electronic home appliances category in May 2013. It currently claims to offer products from more than 17 categories and claims to have 10 million registered users and 1 million unique daily visitors at present.
However, Flipkart CEO Sachin Bansal had previously said that Fashion category was the key for the company going forward and it plans to become a leader in fashion category by Diwali.
This investment comes at a time when Amazon India is aggressively adding more categories to its website. Last month itself, Amazon has added new categories like Home & Kitchen products, toys & games, baby products, personal care & healthcare products and fashion jewellery & watches.
Related:
- Flipkart Founders On Plans, Marketplaces, Categories, Regulation, Disbelievers Post $200M Fundraising
- E-Commerce Major Flipkart Raises $200M From Existing Investors
- Flipkart Extends Its eBook App To iOS, WP8 & Web; Nokia Bundling Deal