• Home
  • Internet
  • Internet News
  • Flipkart Raises $1.4 Billion from Microsoft, eBay, and Tencent in Biggest Fundraising Round; Acquires eBay India

Flipkart Raises $1.4 Billion from Microsoft, eBay, and Tencent in Biggest Fundraising Round; Acquires eBay India

Flipkart Raises $1.4 Billion from Microsoft, eBay, and Tencent in Biggest Fundraising Round; Acquires eBay India
Highlights
  • Flipkart has raised $1.4 billion from Microsoft, Tencent, and eBay
  • As part of the deal, eBay.in is being sold to Flipkart
  • Amazon's Jeff Bezos had committed $3 billion to India last year
Advertisement

Flipkart on Monday announced that it has raised $1.4 billion (approximately Rs. 9,030 crores) - the largest fund-raising yet for an Indian startup - from a consortium of investors, namely Tencent, eBay, and Microsoft. The talks between these companies were reported in February, at which point the speculation was that Flipkart would be valued at around $10-12 billion (around Rs. 64.5 crores to Rs. 77.5 crores) - the actual funding puts Flipkart at $11.6 billion.

This investment adds to an existing group of investors that includes Tiger Global Management, Naspers Group, Accel Partners and DST Global. Apart from this, there are further rumours that SoftBank would invest in Flipkart as part of a Flipkart-Snapdeal merger, though of course all this is speculation at this point.

Ten Years On, Is Flipkart's Culture Due for an Overhaul?

"We are delighted that Tencent, eBay and Microsoft - all innovation powerhouses - have chosen to partner with us on their India journey," wrote Flipkart co-founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal in a mailed statement. "We have chosen these partners based on their long histories of pioneering industries, and the unique expertise and insights each of them bring to Flipkart. This deal reaffirms our resolve to hasten the transformation of commerce in India through technology."

Chinese giant Tencent, which has invested in social networking, gaming, e-commerce, and other areas, is joining as a strategic investor, the release noted, and will be lending expertise to Flipkart in areas such as social and payments. In China, the company rivals Alibaba, which is an investor in Snapdeal and Paytm.

The investment by eBay is accompanied by a strategic commercial agreement with Flipkart. In exchange for an equity stake in Flipkart, eBay is making a cash investment in and selling its eBay.in business to Flipkart. eBay.in will continue to operate as an independent entity as a part of Flipkart.

"eBay is committed to winning in India in partnership with Flipkart," said Devin Wenig, President and CEO of eBay. "Our exclusive global trade partnership will allow eBay and Flipkart to reach even more consumers around the world.”

Flipkart’s latest valuation is less than its previous $15 billion (roughly Rs. 1 lakh crores) valuation, which, had further dropped to below $10 billion by late-2016, according to unofficial reports.

In February, Microsoft and Flipkart announced a cloud partnership. Flipkart will start using Microsoft Azure as its public cloud, and the platform will provide analytics to the online marketplace's existing servers. Flipkart is also looking to use Microsoft's AI tools to help provide customers better recommendations, amongst other things. The Azure platform's global scale will also allow for continued growth and expansion, the two companies said, part of Flipkart's 10-year-plan to scale up to 500 million customers.

Global e-commerce giant Amazon had announced last year that it will invest an additional $3 billion in India, bringing the total investment in the country up to $5 billion, so it remains to be seen if the $1.2 billion will be enough for Flipkart to help fight off the competition. According to Crunchbase, in 13 rounds including this one, Flipkart has so far raised a total of $4.65 billion (approximately Rs. 30,000 crores).

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Gadgets 360 Staff
The resident bot. If you email me, a human will respond. More
Prisma for Android Finally Gets In-App Store for Filters
Intex ELYT-e1 Launched in India: Price, Release Date, Specifications, and More
Share on Facebook Gadgets360 Twitter Share Tweet Snapchat Share Reddit Comment google-newsGoogle News
 
 

Advertisement

Follow Us

Advertisement

© Copyright Red Pixels Ventures Limited 2024. All rights reserved.
Trending Products »
Latest Tech News »