Indian homegrown ecommerce giant Flipkart, which is currently facing a fierce battle from US-based ecommerce biggie Amazon has raised a whopping $71 million from South African technology investor Naspers. The investment takes Naspers stake in the company to 16.5 per cent.
The South African tech investor first invested its money in Flipkart five years ago in 2012 when the latter was raising its series D funding. At that time, Naspers emerged as the lead investor for the round. The company once again pumped in money in the company in 2014 when it teamed up with Tiger Global and led a $1 billion investment into the ecommerce company during the series G round.
The $71 million investment from Naspers will help Flipkart in blazing its guns against its biggest competitor in the company, Amazon. The huge investment is also testimonial of Naspers confidence in Flipkart and its future. In fact, Naspers in its annual result statement said that Flipkart still remains a large opportunity for them as market estimates expect the online retail market in India to reach $50 billion by 2020. It also added that even though the competition has intensified in the country with Amazon gaining market share in the early part of 2017, but Flipkart is staying afloat and even gained the monthly gross merchandise value in June that fell in March. Naspers has in fact put Flipkart together with PayU and MakeMyTrip (its other investments) and classified them as ‘companies that are 3-5 years away from full potential.’
The year is going to witness a fierce battle between Amazon and Flipkart. Although Amazon is full-blown into investment streak in India, the currently reigning champion Flipkart is also not far behind as the Tiger Global-backed company raised a whopping a whopping US $ 1.4 billion earlier this year. This is in addition to the $71 million from Naspers. According to sources close to both the companies, both the e-commerce players will be aggressively investing in strengthening their operations in the country and in wooing Indian customers their way with jaw-dropping offers.
The South African tech investor first invested its money in Flipkart five years ago in 2012 when the latter was raising its series D funding. At that time, Naspers emerged as the lead investor for the round. The company once again pumped in money in the company in 2014 when it teamed up with Tiger Global and led a $1 billion investment into the ecommerce company during the series G round.
The $71 million investment from Naspers will help Flipkart in blazing its guns against its biggest competitor in the company, Amazon. The huge investment is also testimonial of Naspers confidence in Flipkart and its future. In fact, Naspers in its annual result statement said that Flipkart still remains a large opportunity for them as market estimates expect the online retail market in India to reach $50 billion by 2020. It also added that even though the competition has intensified in the country with Amazon gaining market share in the early part of 2017, but Flipkart is staying afloat and even gained the monthly gross merchandise value in June that fell in March. Naspers has in fact put Flipkart together with PayU and MakeMyTrip (its other investments) and classified them as ‘companies that are 3-5 years away from full potential.’
The year is going to witness a fierce battle between Amazon and Flipkart. Although Amazon is full-blown into investment streak in India, the currently reigning champion Flipkart is also not far behind as the Tiger Global-backed company raised a whopping a whopping US $ 1.4 billion earlier this year. This is in addition to the $71 million from Naspers. According to sources close to both the companies, both the e-commerce players will be aggressively investing in strengthening their operations in the country and in wooing Indian customers their way with jaw-dropping offers.
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