Flipkart raises $1bn in fresh funding, eyes another $1bn

Flipkart is one of India's biggest e-commerce platforms, run by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal.

The company was founded in 2007, and is presently headquartered in Bengaluru.

The e-commerce portal is now valued at nearly $15 billion, and generated revenues of about $1.5 billion last year.

Popular online marketplace companies such as Myntra and Jabong are also under its belt.

Flipkart's online sales have sparked massive traffic to the portal, and have oftentimes outnumbered the gains made by the company's competitors such as Amazon and Snapdeal.

Since the company launching its famed 'Big Billion Day' sales in 2014, the company has run subsequent editions every year.

This year, Flipkart clocked sales of around Rs.3,000 crore that proved to be much higher than its rivals.

The company's Big Billion Day sale which ran from 2 October to 6 October, saw sales of around 15.5 million units.

This was pitched to be higher than its American rival, Amazon's sales in India which were placed around 15 million units.

The company sold products worth about Rs.1,400 crore in just a single day during the sale.

Indian e-commerce company Flipkart is looking to raise fresh funds this year, according to reports.

After scripting massive success with its recent Big Billion Day sales, the company is now eyeing a fresh round of funds for its operations.

Reports said that although a final amount has not been fixed, they would look to raise up to $1 billion.

If Flipkart gained robust investments, the company would see a solid revival in its sales.

The company securing a fresh round of funds will also help improve its chances for securing better funds under Flipkart's own terms.

The company's growth trajectory highly impacts India's start-up space too, with most of the investments to these new start-ups dependent on the success of Flipkart.

Sources said Flipkart is in talks with Google to secure its next round of funding; talks with Walmart have also not collapsed yet according to insiders.

The funding is expected to be between $10-15 billion; it is unclear whether Flipkart held talks with Google's corporate-venture arm CapitalG or with Google itself.

Google has already invested in Uber, Freshdesk, Practo and Commonfloor.com.

Flipkart has raised funds of $1bn, and is planning to raise another $1bn in the next few months.

Though its valuation of $10bn was a fall from 2015's $15.5bn, its backers included big names like Microsoft Corp., eBay Inc, Tencent Holdings Ltd.

This re-strengthens the struggling company to take on Amazon, its biggest rival, which has pledged to invest $5bn on its India operations.