Flipkart completed a fundraising round valuing the Indian online retailer at $37.6bn, with main owner Walmart joining investors including SoftBank Group in injecting $3.6bn of fresh capital. Tencent Holdings, Blackstone Group-backed Antara Capital and several sovereign wealth and pension funds also participated, the company said Monday in a statement. Those include Abu Dhabi’s sovereign fund ADQ, Singapore’s GIC, Qatar Investment Authority and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
The funding round is a boon for Flipkart and US retail giant Walmart, which bought a majority of the Indian company three years ago for $16bn and has been working toward an initial public offering for the business. It has since carved out the payments arm PhonePe from Flipkart, a unit that could be valued at close to $10bn. Japan’s SoftBank, which had previously backed Flipkart and then sold its stake to Walmart at a handsome profit, is back as a shareholder. Investors are plowing billions of dollars into India’s consumer internet and software-as-a-service startups, which are growing rapidly and benefiting from the coronavirus pandemic.