Indian cloud-based online shopping site
Flipkart has received $1 billion in funding. The funding, provided by a blend of new and existing investors (including Singapore’s GIC and Tiger Global Management, Naspers, Accel Partners and Morgan Stanley Investment Management), is the single largest round of investment ever generated by an Indian Internet company.
Flipkart offers 15 million products in more than 70 categories. It has in excess of 20 million users and manages 5 million shipments on a monthly basis. The company recently met the $1 billion in merchandise value mark and its latest investment supports the site's goal of becoming the “mobile ecommerce company of the future.” While companies such as Facebook and Uber have received more than $1 billion in investment, this has been in stages rather than a single investment. News of the round put the company's value at $5-7 billion.
“We believe the internet will improve the quality of life for millions of Indians, and e-commerce is going to play a huge role in this change," explained co-founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal in a statement. "The focus at Flipkart is to continue to make shopping online simpler and more accessible through the use of technology”. The founders went on to suggest their ambitions for the site were to make it India’s first $100-billion company within five years.
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