Flipkart Limited, which is based in Singapore, has infused Rs 44.7 billion into the marketplace unit Flipkart India. Flipkart Marketplace, another Singapore-based entity, has invested Rs 3.7 billion into Flipkart Internet, which runs the company’s retail platform, according to the latest regulatory filing with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).
This large investment in the wholesale arm from its parent indicates the aggressive plans that Flipkart has charted out to counter its closest rival Amazon, which too runs a wholesale arm.
The investment in the India units comes at a time when the company had raised about US $4 billion last year in two funding rounds from investors, including Chinese Internet giant Tencent, U.S.-based e-commerce firm eBay, software maker Microsoft and Japan’s SoftBank Group.
The wholesale arm buys products in bulk from various manufacturers and then sells it to merchants who work closely with the online retailer as well as to independent thirdparty vendors. These merchants, in turn, sell these products to consumers on the Flipkart platform. Flipkart Internet is the other significant entity that runs the marketplace for the e-commerce major.
