Indian startup Flipkart may be raising another $600 million to crush Amazon

Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart is in talks to raise $600 million in a new round of financing, according to The Economic Times.

The report didn't mention any specific investors involved in the round, but it did say Flipkart is looking at a valuation that's higher than its last, which was about $12 billion.

This comes just after Flipkart raised $700 million in December from Baillie Gifford, Greenoaks Capital, Steadview Capital, T. Rowe Price Associates and Qatar Investment. The company's existing investors, DST Global, GIC, ICONIQ Capital and Tiger Global, also contributed to that round.

Flipkart also raised $1 billion last July in a round that included Singapore sovereign-wealth fund GIC and existing investors Tiger Global Management LLC, Accel Partners, and Morgan Stanley Investment Management.


Flipkart is India's largest online marketplace in terms of sheer sales numbers.

Founded by two former Amazon employees in 2007, the company has 33,000 employees and 10 million daily visits with 3,000 merchants selling products. It had a head start in the Indian online marketplace over Amazon, which didn't open its official online store in India until June 2013. Still, Amazon has more merchants selling products on its platform (5,000 versus Flipkart's 3,000).

It's unclear how Flipkart would use the new funding, but last July the company said it would use its $1 billion round to sell more mobile products.

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