Flipkart raises $200 m

‘This funding is a great validation that we are on the right track’

E-commerce player Flipkart, on Wednesday, announced that it had raised $200 million from investors.

Though the company had not added any fresh investors, it announced that South African mass media firm Naspers, equity firm Accel Partners and Tiger Global Management, and Iconiq Global were the major contributors to this ‘record figure’.

This is the fifth round of funding for the e-commerce major, which recently shut its flagship service Flyte, and is yet to reach the profitability mark with its expanding ventures.

Though the company declined to share details of its total funding since the company was set up five years ago — this is the first official announcement on investments from the Bangalore-based company — Flipkart confirmed that it made up for a substantial portion of its total investments so far.

When asked about the scepticism around e-commerce in India, Sachin Bansal, CEO of Flipkart, said that “this funding is a great validation that we are on the right track.” He said that it was a positive sign for e-commerce.

On profitability and the possibility of an IPO, he said: “Our goal is certainly to go public. But we are currently focussing on making investments that will make us a horizontal player. So, we can remain small and be profitable, but what we want is to be everywhere which is why profitability is not our prime focus right now.” In the long-term, the company wanted to reach the $1-billion mark by 2015, Mr. Bansal added.

Flipkart said it had 96 lakh registered users, and over 10 lakh unique visitors every day.