Flipkart will invest more in offline firms, says CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy

Within days of announcing investments in Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd (ABFRL),  e-commerce major Flipkart has said it’s  exploring strategic funding in multiple offline retailers and technology companies.

The Walmart-owned firm is looking at an online-offline business combination, quite like rivals Amazon and Reliance JioMart.

Flipkart Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kalyan Krishnamurthy told Business Standard that the firm would consider making additional investments in entities which are built on strong ethics, values, culture and have complementary capability skills.

“We’ll continue to look for more partnerships,” said Krishnamurthy, in an interview. “The philosophy of the company has been to grow through partnerships to make sure that the entire ecosystem is successful.”

Recently, the Flipkart group and ABFRL  formed a new strategic partnership aimed at enhancing the consumer fashion experience. Through an investment of Rs 1,500 crore, Flipkart Investments will acquire about 7.8 per cent stake in ABFRL.

Krishnamurthy said the starting point of any deep partnership and investment discussion with Flipkart would have to be a very strong culture and value match. 

He said Flipkart had partnered with companies focused on long term (like for 10 years or so) rather than the next quarter or a year. “In the case of Aditya Birla Fashion, we saw that from the beginning,” said Krishnamurthy. “We noticed that the capabilities which the two businesses bring are very different and completely complementary to each other.”

For instance, Flipkart has more than 3,000 engineers who solve local technology problems for India and players such as Aditya Birla Fashion or Arvind Fashions have created a range of strong and trusted brands and a huge network of stores, according to Krishnamurthy. 

“There are several things which we can actually share and learn from each other,” he said.

This year, Flipkart has already made several strategic investments which include in offline retailers and tech companies. In July, Flipkart Group invested Rs 260 crore for a significant minority stake in Arvind Fashions’ (AFL) recently formed subsidiary Arvind Youth Brands, which owns the Flying Machine brand. In the same month, Flipkart strengthened its wholesale presence with the acquisition of Walmart India, which operates the Best Price cash-and-carry business.