Russian internet investing guru won over by Flipkart

E-tailer raises Rs 1,230 cr from investors led by Yuri Milner's DST Global

E-commerce player Flipkart has raised $210 million (Rs 1,230 crore) from a consortium of investors led by DST Global, an internet-focused investment group founded by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, against an undisclosed stake. The Bangalore-based company, which recently bought fashion e-tailer Myntra, will use the funds to expand. Including the latest round, Flipkart has raised $750 million (Rs 4,500 crore). So far, however, it has disclosed funding of $610 million (Rs 3,600 crore).

Less than a week after the Myntra acquisition, the company was looking for more buyouts, Chief Executive Sachin Bansal said. While Myntra would help in strengthening its presence in the fashion segment, Flipkart might now look beyond e-commerce for acquisitions in allied areas, he added. “We believe that as a leader in the internet space in India, we have an opportunity to look beyond e-commerce to adjacent areas such as payments, where we already have some presence, and logistics,” Bansal said.

CAPITAL LOGIC

• This round of funding “less about money... more about getting associated with DST Global and Milner”
• Founded in 2009 by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, internet-focused DST Global has invested in internet assets such as Facebook, Zynga, Twitter, Spotify & Alibaba
• Holding cash gives Flipkart flexibility to invest when opportunities arise

The company could also look at category-related business, seller development  or reverse-logistics. “Again, not a lot of these are at scales yet in India but when we find the right team and founder, we would look at them. There are start-ups that are doing pretty well and we are looking at these,” he added.

Flipkart said besides DST Global, old investors — Tiger Global, Naspers and Iconiq Capital — participated in the latest round, which comes when it hasn’t yet used the $360 million it raised last year. The company said holding cash provided it the flexibility to invest whenever an opportunity arose. Additionally, the company said, this round of funding was “less about the money and more about getting associated with DST Global and Milner”. DST Global was the best in its technology-focus and they had invested in a great set of companies, Bansal said.

Founded in 2009 by Milner, DST Global, with Mail.ru Group (also founded by Milner), has invested in some of the world’s most valuable internet assets such as Facebook, Zynga, Twitter, Spotify, ZocDoc, Groupon, 360Buy, Planet Labs and Alibaba.

On the speculation that Flipkart will launch an initial public offering (IPO), Bansal said none of the company’s promoters and investors were in any hurry. “The older internet companies went for IPOs very soon because private money was not easily available. However, today there is enough private funding available and so the trend has reversed,” he said.