Flipkart raises over Rs 9,000 crore from Walmart-led investor group

 US-based retail giant Walmart will lead a fresh infusion of $1.2 billion (about Rs 9,045 crore) in Flipkart as the competition in eCommerce market gets more aggressive with the entry of Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries. The latest equity will be funded in two tranches over the remainder of the fiscal year.

The investment is led by Walmart along with a group of existing shareholders, according to the statement issued by two companies. The other shareholders investing in Flipkart were not identified by the company.

The capital will be used for the online retail business of Singapore-registered Flipkart — which also includes fashion portal Myntra — where the company has been locked in market share battle with US-based Amazon.

“Flipkart continues to leverage its culture of innovation to accelerate growth and enable millions of customers, sellers, merchants and small businesses to prosper and be a part of India’s digital transformation,” said Judith McKenna, President and CEO of Walmart International, in a statement.

Founded in 2007, the Flipkart Group includes Flipkart, digital payments platform PhonePe, fashion specialty site Myntra and logistics and delivery services provider eKart. Flipkart offers 150 million products across more than 80 categories and has recently surpassed 1.5 billion visits per month. It had reported 45 percent growth in monthly active customers and 30 percent growth in transactions per customer for FY20.