New Delhi: After raising $1 billion worth of funds in July, India's largest online commerce player Flipkart is eyeing its third round of funding this year, the Wall Street Journal reports.
WSJ, citing two people familiar with the situation, says the company is in the market to raise anywhere between $500 million and $1.5 billion as it expands its product range catering to a widening base of customers. Flipkart will also reportedly use the funds to improve marketing efforts for in-house brands like Myntra besides scouting for other acquisitions as well.
WSJ report says this will value the e-retailer at $10 billion.
Reports say the company has already begun short listing of investors for the third round of fund raising which is expected to be held in January 2015 but is picky about them.
The e-tailer has completed two rounds of funding in 2014 with the first one in May and the next one in July, raising $1.2 billion
The second round of funding in July was led by existing investors Tiger Global Management and Naspers, GIC, along with Accel Partners, DST Global, ICONIQ Capital, Morgan Stanley Investment Management and Sofina. So far the company is able to raise over $1.7 billion from investors.
The new fund-raise will value Flipkart at 2.5 to 2.7 times its annualized revenue, which is in sync with Amazon's valuation multiples till recently.
Flipkart was founded in 2007 by two former Amazon employees, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, both now 32. They started selling books and went on to electronics and other goods.
