Flipkart raises Rs1,200 crore in fifth round of funding

E-commerce firm Flipkart today raised $200 million (Rs1,200 crore) in the fifth round of funding from its existing investors, in order to strengthen its operations.

In this round it has raised money from existing investors including South Africa's Naspers, California-based Accel Partners and New York-based Tiger Global Management.

Other earlier investors in Flipkart include ICONIQ Capital from California and a few angel investors.

Flipkart will use the money to upgrade its technology capabilities, expanding its supply chain and developing talent.

"With this investment, we can now take Flipkart to the next level, pioneering technology and supply-chain innovations that will change the face of online shopping, said Sachin Bansal, Flipkart's co-founder and CEO.

''This will not only enable us to reach our goal of $1 billion gross market value by 2015, but also help us achieve bigger milestones in the future," he added.

The Bangalore-based company founded by Sachin and Binny Bansal, had earlier raised money in four rounds of funding from venture capitalists - $1 million in 2009, $10 million in 2010, $20 million in 2011 and a reported $150 million last year.

"Each round of funding has come at a strategic point during our growth. Our aim is to continuously improve the shopping experience for customers and provide sellers with a highly scalable platform on which to do business," said Binny Bansal, COO of Flipkart.

Flipkart started as an online books retailer in 2007, and diversified slowly into movies, music, games, mobiles, cameras, computers, healthcare and personal products, home appliances and electronics, stationery, perfumes, toys, apparels and shoes.

With an eye on US e-commerce giant Amazon.com having entered India, Flipkart recently changed its business strategy.

Although being the country's largest e-tailer it has discontinued selling prestigious white goods from Samsung, Panasonic, Whirlpool and LG among others, in favour of selling smaller electronic appliances.