NEA, the US-based venture capital major with $11 billion in committed capital, is understood to have shown keen interest to fund Bangalore-based Flipkart, an online retailer of books and lifestyle accessories such as mobile phones, consumer electronics, music, games among others.
According to investment bankers in the know, Flipkart is understood to be in discussions with a few global private equity and venture capital firms to raise about $150 million shortly. General Atlantic Partners is reportedly among the front runners to invest in Flipkart. Investment bankers detail that NEA will invest $40-$50 million and the rest will be from another PE major which has the bandwidth to write cheques to the tune of $100 million in one deal.
If this fresh fund-raising fructifies, it will be Flipkart’s fourth round of funding since starting in 2007.
The company had earlier raised a total of $30 million in two tranches from Tiger Global — $20 million earlier this year and $10 million during 2009. Prior to this, it had raised early stage VC from Accel Partners. The management of NEA and Flipkart could not be reached for their comments.
Founded in 2007 by two IIT graduates — Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal — Flipkart cracked the Top 100 Indian sites and was credited for being India’s largest online bookseller with over 10 million titles on offer catering to over a million customers.
This space of online retailing of books of lifestyle accessories has been on a sharp upswing in the recent past with increased penetration of broadband in India. Bangalore-based Indiaplaza.in recently raised $5 million from venture capital fund NEA Indo-US.
Flipkart has been growing aggressively in the recent past and according to estimates it sells around 200,000 books annually. One of the key differentiators is that Flipkart offers 10-15 per cent discount on every book.
The company had a topline of Rs 25 crore during 2009-10 and around Rs 75 crore during FY11 and is understood to be poised for a hockey-stick growth during FY12. The fresh found of funding will be used to fortify the backend technology, logistics and warehousing. The company has four warehouses, in Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi, and will open more in Tier II and III cities as well.
Flipkart has over 1,000 employees and late last year acquired social book discovery tool WeRead from Lulu, a US-based on-demand publishing firm.
