Flipkart, the poster boy for Indian startup market, was started back in the year 2007 two IIT Delhi graduates who had quit Amazon with entrepreneur dreams. Ten years later it is competing hard and thriving in the presence of the global giant that Amazon has become in the meantime. Opened as just an online bookstore, Flipkart, India’s largest e-commerce portal, not employs thousands of people and sells the widest range of products. Flipkart, despite its ups and downs, went about its journey, creating landmarks in the process. It also set the stage for many other startups too. At the same time, it was the investors who backed the company at crucial points of time, in its fight against Amazon and other rivals. The company’s investors include Tiger Global Management, Naspers, Accel Partners, Dragoneer Investment Group, Sofina, ICONIQ Capital, DST Global, GIC and Morgan Stanley Investment Management. According to a Bloomberg report, Flipkart has reportedly completed a $1billion fundraising and is also looking raise around $1 billion more in the due course of 2017. The company’s latest funding on March 20 was reportedly set at a valuation of about $10 billion. Despite Flipkart’s recent internal problems as well as a dry capital raising environment, this report appears to provide a fresh push to the company in its fight against the competition. Here is a timeline of the finances (funding and valuations) that Flipkart has received through the years:
2007: Begins with 4 lakh or $6,000 as initial capital.
2008: Ashish Gupta, founder of Junglee and Helion Venture Partners funds Flipkart initially.
2009: Accel India, the venture capital firm, provides the first institutional round of fund of $1 million. Flipkart also received $10 million from Tiger Global Management. The valuation of the company was reported to be a bit lower than $50 million.
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2010-11: Flipkart raised $20 million from Tiger Global and begins talks with private equity funds like General Atlantic. The valuation of the company then was $1 billion.
2012: Flipkart became a unicorn startup. It announced $150 million round led by South African tech major Naspers. The valuation of Flipkart back then was $1 billion.
2013: Flipkart raised $200 million from existing investors in mid-2013. The company also raised $160 million more from Morgan Stanley, Sofina, Vulcan Capital and Dragoneer. The valuation fo Flipkart was reported to be $1.6 billion.
Also read | Flipkart to raise $1 bn with a valuation of $10 bn, a decline from $15.5 bn in 2015
2014: Following the acquisition of Myntra in that year, Flipkart raised $210 million from DST Global. The valuation then stood at $2.6 billion.
2014: This was a piece of history as Flipkart witnessed a whopping $1B funding round from GIC Singapore and existing backers like Naspers, DST Global and Tiger Global. Even the valuation shot up 1.5 times and stood at $7 billion, within the span of less than quarter of a year.
2014: Flipkart raised a $700 million fund from hedge funds like Greenoaks, Steadview Capital, sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority, mutual fund T Rowe Price. Flipkart’s valuation again increased to more than $11 billion.
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2015: Flipkart reached the highest valuation at $15.5 billion. It also raised $700 million from all the existing investors.
2016: This was a bad year for Flipkart. The company received the first big markdown by a Morgan Stanley Mutual Fund. This time the valuation stood at $11billion.
2016: The markdowns kept continuing by various mutual fund investors like Vanguard, T Rowe Price and Fidelity.
2016: This time Valic, the US fund, marked up the valuation of its shares in Flipkart by 10 percent. Now, the valuation of the company was $11.5 billion.
2016: A Morgan Stanley Mutual Fund made another considerable cut to the value of its Flipkart shares. The valuation was now a mere, $5.6 billion.