Cash-rich Flipkart in talks to invest in Swiggy, UrbanLadder, UrbanClap
23 Oct 2017
India's home-grown ecommerce market leader Flipkart is mulling more investments and acquisitions in the startup space, according to a report by Mint.
The Bangalore-based e-retailer is sitting on a stockpile of more than $4-billion in cash, is planning to diversify its business in a bid to take on rival Amazon India.
According to the report, Flipkart is in talks to invest in food delivery aggregator Swiggy, services firm UrbanClap and furniture startup UrbanLadder, along with insurance and wealth management startups.
It was earlier reported that the company was in talks to pick up "a large minority stake" in BookMyShow, which would place the movie ticketing platform's value at $500-700 million (See: Flipkart reported in talks with BookMyShow for minority stake).
Currently, Reliance Industries-owned Network18 is the single-largest shareholder in BookMyShow with a 39-per cent stake.
Flipkart was also reported to have begun exploratory discussions with Future Group chief Kishore Biyani to pick up an 8-10 per cent stake in Future Lifestyle Fashions Ltd (FLF), the listed fashion arm of the group (See: Flipkart in talks with Biyani for Future Lifestyle stake: report).
Flipkart recently invested $500 million in its wallet payments subsidiary PhonePe, which is battling SoftBank-backed Paytm, and Amazon Pay.
This year alone, the company has raised nearly $3 billion from SoftBank, Tencent, eBay and Microsoft.
Flipkart, in its filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in September, said that it had increased its reserves for financing acquisitions and investments from Rs3,000 crore to roughly Rs8,000 crore.
Flipkart didn't respond to Mint's email seeking comment. UrbanClap and Swiggy also did not respond to requests for comment. UrbanLadder said no deal with Flipkart is in the works currently.
