Flipkart raises $700 mn in fresh funding; files for Singapore listing

India's largest e-commerce marketplace Flipkart has raised a fresh funding of $700 million from new investors that would be used for its expansion plans. Separately, the Indian company has also filed an application with Singapore ACRA to convert it into a public company.

"Flipkart Limited (incorporated at Singapore) has filed with ACRA Singapore for conversion to a public company. This is a mandatory procedure for all companies where the number of shareholders exceeds 50," Flipkart said in a statement.

The fresh investments were raised from Baillie Gifford, Greenoaks Capital, Steadview Capital, T. Rowe Price Associates, Qatar Investment Authority, DST Global, GIC, ICONIQ Capital and Tiger Global, Flipkart said in a statement.

The $700 million fund raised by Flipkart for long term strategic investments in India takes its number of investors to over 50.

As with previous funds raised, these funds will be used towards long-term strategic investments in India and to build a world-class technology company, delivering superior customer experiences, it added.

Flipkart, which is based out of Singapore, has also filed an application with Singapore ACRA to convert it into a public company as its number of shareholders in the company exceeded 50. This is a mandatory procedure, and ''is in no way indicative of any upcoming Initial Public Offering (IPO) or of any corporate activity either in Singapore or any other part of the world,'' it added.

Flipkart.com, which offers more than 20 million products across 70 categories, including books, media, consumer electronics and lifestyle, was launched in October 2007. Flipkart, currently 20,000-people strong, has 26 million registered users and clocks more than 8 million daily visits.

India's e-commerce sector is heating up, which began registering an improvement for the last three years. This year e-commerce companies such as Flipkart ($1 billion), Snapdeal ($627 million and $133 million), Myntra ($50 million), Bigbasket ($33 million) and Jabong ($27.5 million) raised a total of $1.87 billion in funding, signaling the renaissance of the e-commerce sector, after the dot.com burst of 2000.

Earlier, in October, Snapdeal raised $627 million from the SoftBank group, while Amazon announced a $2 billion dedicated fund for India.

Bengaluru: E-commerce major Flipkart on Saturday announced filing application with Singapore based companies' regulator ACRA to become a public company after raising USD 700 million for long term strategic investments in India following which its number of investors exceeded 50.

"Flipkart Limited (incorporated at Singapore) has filed with ACRA Singapore for conversion to a Public Company. This is a mandatory procedure for all companies where the number of shareholders exceeds 50," Flipkart said in a statement.

The USD 700 million fund raised by Flipkart added new investors - Baillie Gifford, Greenoaks Capital, Steadview Capital, T. Rowe Price Associates and Qatar Investment Authority - on company's board.