Flipkart acquiring eBay India; raising US$2B investment: Report

By Sainul Abudhen for e27,

eBay is the sixth largest player in the e-commerce space in India after Flipkart, Amazon, Shopclues, Paytm, and Snapdeal

Three days after Bloomberg reported that Flipkart has closed a US$1 billion in fresh funding, Indian technology portal Factordaily writes that the Bangalore-headquartered e-commerce leader is acquiring eBay’s India operations.

Once the deal is done, eBay India will get folded into Flipkart, the report added citing unnamed sources.

eBay is the sixth largest player in the e-commerce space in the country after Flipkart, Amazon, Shopclues, Paytm, and Snapdeal.

Flipkart

Flipkart

As per the Bloomberg report, which appeared early this week, Flipkart has already closed a US$1 billion funding round from Microsoft, eBay, and Tencent Holdings, with plans to raise an equal amount. This will value Flipkart at US$10 billion, up from US$5.39 billion when its minority investor and the mutual fund managed by Morgan Stanley slashed Flipkart valuation by 3 per cent last month.

Bloomberg had in September last year reported that Flipkart was in advanced talks with global retailing giant Wal-Mart to secure up to US$1 billion in funding for a minority stake. As per the Factordaily report this deal is not closed yet and the US retail giant could invest in the company in the medium term.

Started in 2007, Flipkart has been locked in a bitter battle with Amazon to become the numero uno in India. The e-commerce giant, once considered as the poster boy of the Indian startup ecosystem, has been in a shambles for the past couple of years. Flipkart, one of the first home-grown tech companies from India to enter the coveted global Unicorn startups club, has lost out to close rival Amazon, which came to India five years after the former’s launch in 2007. Flipkart enjoyed an invincible run until the entry of Amazon in 2012, and it has since been losing ground. The US-based company acquired signifiant marketshare and tens of thousands of consumers through a systematic marketing strategy and by offering better user experience and services.

In 2014, Flipkart had raised US$1 billion to become the first Indian company to raise such a huge amount, from investors including Tiger Global, Russia-based DST Global, and Accel Partners.

The company recently roped in Kalyan Krishnamurthy, Managing Director of Tiger Global Management, as its CEO. Under his leadership, the company has started showing signs of a turnaround.  

 First appeared at e27