Flipkart completes fourth round of funding

Indian online retailer Flipkart completed its fourth round of funding yesterday.

Though it had not disclosed the funded amount, the e-commerce store is said to have plans to use the money to achieve growth targets.

The money raised in this round would be invested in the expansion of supply chain capacities, launching new categories and for growing the talent pool to continue building on its leadership position Karandeep Singh, CFO, Flipkart said.

The online store has set a target of $1 billion in gross merchandise value by 2015 and for this round of funding, Flipkart had two new investors - MIH (part of Naspers Group) and Iconiq Capital which had taken a minority stake in the online store.

Flipkart's financiers  Tiger Global and Accel Partners already hold stakes in Flipkart.

The online store recently acquired Letsbuy.com, which Flipkart's two investors, Accel Partners and Tiger Global Management have funded.

At a time of shrinking discount margins from publishers and distributors due to the global economic slowdown, in addition to the increasing warehousing cost, Flipkart was finding it difficult to pass on deep rebates to its consumers.

Flipkart, started as an online books retailer in 2007, and diversified slowly into mobiles, cameras, movies and music CD/DVDs and electronic goods.