US-based retail giant Walmart has invested close to $600 million in ecommerce platform , according to reports. This marks Walmart’s first direct investment in the company this year after it bought investment firm Tiger Global Management’s stake in the company for $1.4 billion in July, increasing Walmart’s shareholding in the company to 80.49%.
Walmart spent a total of $3.5 billion to realise its current stakes in Flipkart during the first half of 2023.
The investment was first reported by DealStreetAsia and is reportedly part of a $1 billion investment into the Indian ecommerce major. The balance amount is likely to come in from other investors, including SoftBank.
Tencent is the second-largest shareholder in Flipkart with 5.98% stakes in the company as of July 2023 according to market research platform, Tracxn.
Flipkart was valued at nearly $38 billion during the transaction in July this year. Queries sent to Flipkart on the valuation for the current infusion remained unanswered at the time of publishing the article.
Flipkart hived-off its payments entity PhonePe in December 2022 to unlock value for the latter. In July this year, Flipkart announced a one-time $700 million ESOP payout for its employees as a result of the separation.
Flipkart India Pvt Ltd, which owns and operates the ecommerce marketplace business, reported consolidated losses of Rs 4,890.6 crore for FY23, while its consolidated net income stood at Rs 56,012.8 crore.
Edited by Kanishk Singh
