Tag: Tiger Global

  • India’s Flipkart closes $1 billion funding round

    India’s Flipkart closes $1 billion funding round

    Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart has closed a US$1 billion funding round, with plans to raise an equal amount over the next few months.

    Investors who have contributed to this round include eBay, Microsoft and Tencent Holdings, Bloomberg reports.
    The funding comes at a valuation of $10 billion, up from $5.39 billion when its minority investor and the mutual fund managed by Morgan Stanley slashed Flipkart valuation by 3 per cent last month. Its peak valuation was $15.5 billion in 2015.

    Launched in 2007, Flipkart was one of the first Indian tech companies to enter the global Unicorn startups club. It had an invincible run until Amazon entered India in 2012.

    In 2014, Flipkart raised $1 billion, a record amount for an Indian company, from investors including Accel Partners, Russia-based DST Global and Tiger Global, whose former MD Kalyan Krishnamurthy has joined Flipkart as CEO.

  • Alibaba making moves to buy ShopClues

    Alibaba making moves to buy ShopClues

    Chinese internet giant Alibaba has been discussing the acquisition of Indian online marketplace ShopClues, which is valued at more than US$1 billion.

    Alibaba wants to merge the marketplace of Paytm, in which it has a stake, with larger rival ShopClues, reports The Times of India. The newspaper says Alibaba has several acquisition targets as it aims to firm up its presence in India against Amazon.

    Based in Gurgaon, ShopClues has raised about $250 million with investors including GIC of Singapore, Helion, Nexus Venture Partners and Tiger Global. It is positioned as an online flea market, selling cheaper and mostly unbranded merchandise.

    Former Zynga and Yahoo executive K Guru Gowrappan, who has been mandated to chart Alibaba’s growth in Asian markets (excluding China), is driving the merger-and-acquisition talks with the senior management of ShopClues, sources say.

    Meanwhile, Alibaba group, which holds a stake of about 40 per cent in Paytm, has started the process to separate the Noida-based company’s core payment business and smaller commerce business into two separate entities.