Indian Flipkart Gets $20 Million in fresh funding

Have you noticed FlipKart ads on Indian Television? The ads which started being aired since past six months and are quite innovative? Like one ad showing a mouse endlessly running inside a small moving wheel, with a tag line 24 Hours Customer Service; or another ad with the same mouse taking a bite on a giant piece of cheese, with the tag line ‘for mouth watering deals visit Flipkart.com’ ? here's one other interesting ad:

If no; Then, for those still unawares what Flipkart.com is -- then Flipkart.com is India's largest online book store. Flipkart Online Services Pvt. Ltd., a Bangalore-based start up, which runs e-commerce site Flipkart.com, plans to become India’s largest e-commerce company in India; and over the past year, Flipkart ventured into new product categories such as mobiles, electronics, games, music and movies.

The recent development on the Flipkart front is that New York-based hedge fund Tiger Global has invested $20 million or approximately Rupees 90 crore in Flipkart Online Services Pvt. Ltd, reports WSJ. This is the second time the company is getting a funding from Tiger Global. Flipkart raised $10 million or 45 crore from Tiger Global exactly a year ago.

According to Flipkart CEO Sachin Bansal, the fresh funding will be utilized by the company to strengthen supply chain capacity and upgrading technology platforms, including automation at warehouses; resulting in shrinking in the delivery times. Money will be put to expansion purposes as well. See Sachin Bansal Talk at Young Turks:

Flipkart Online Services Pvt. Ltd.’s was profitable in the year ended March 2011; with revenue more than 750 million rupees or rupees 75 crore. Over the past two years, the firm has grown at a compounded annual growth rate of over 600%.

Hopeful of continuing the similar growth or even higher; on increased broadband penetration in India and a wider product portfolio; Flipkark is targeting revenue of 45 billion rupees or Rupees 450 crore by fiscal 2015.

With much happening at the Flipkart, more interesting ads can be expected from it in the next few months. The lab mouse can be seen running and getting rewarded at new environs with new thingies, like with a range of electronics.

Yes, Flipkart plans to venture into full range of electronics, in immediate future. --------

Indian Flipkart Gets $20 Million in fresh funding

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