Flipkart has received $1 billion in fresh capital; it was valued at nearly $7 billion in the latest round of fundraising!!! These are just not numbers, THESE ARE BIG NUMBERS and certainly mean a lot for the Indian internet industry. Flipkart has turned the page and the sheer size of the latest fundraising puts pressure on rivals Snapdeal, Shopclues, and Jabong to attract hundreds of millions of dollars to run the show now.
The World’s largest online retailer Amazon.com Inc. is fast expanding in India after it launched in June 2013. Some were anticipating Amazon will try to overshadow all the national players as they have surplus money, technology, processes, supplier, etc. with them. The situation has dramatically changed and Amazon has immediately reported that they are pumping 2 Billion USD now into Indian operations. WOW!!! It just means consumers will get the most benefit and in the near future E-Commerce, the bubble is likely to be formed in this part of the world. This bubble should survive for a long before getting saturated.
A few very important take away we can get from the news is
- Indian companies have a lot of appeal to global investors as money was raised from existing investors including Tiger Global, Naspers and Government of Singapore Investment Corp., the city-state’s sovereign wealth fund, etc.
- The fundraising, the largest ever by an Indian startup and among the largest ever by any Internet startup globally has established Indian firms that have takers now on a global level and should not be taken lightly.
- Flipkart founders (Sachin Bansal & Binny Bansal, just a fact they are not brothers ;-).) are from IIT so it is unsaid fact they are among the smartest, sharpest, and tech-savvy entrepreneurs we have. They are young leaders in making and are closely associated with technology and it’s certain that funds raised will not go only in marketing. R&D will get a major boost and it’s so good for the entire industry. The paradigm of product delivery is changing; unmanned aerial vehicle technology is one immediate thing in the future. Hoping that Flipkart will devise something which is 100% designed, developed, and implemented by an Indian company and others from the global arena may follow the suit.
- Chetan Bhagat (another IIT Alumni, now a famous writer) mentioned “Remember meeting shy IIT Juniors at 2 states book launch, sir we run a small e-bookstore. I said what’s the name. They said Flipkart”. Oh, this small story gave me a kick. It’s happening in India now!!! One good idea has started changing the fortunes for go-getters and making it a better world for everyone.
- Both the Flipkart owners worked at Amazon before founding Flipkart. Bravo!!! You are truly superstars for followers who quit their job and become an entrepreneur (including me).
- The E-Commerce revolution is just starting to build up in India. India has a population of 1.2+ Billion, considering the size National and Global players want to scale up here. They have taken the funding at a good time which will help them grow vertically and horizontally. With others joining the race, the ultimate benefit will be received by the consumers.
