Flipkart's Ekart gets $98 Mn funding from Klick2Shop to boost logistics

Aiming to improve its product delivery, Flipkart-owned Ekart has raised $98 million funding from Klick2Shop. The investment has been done via its subsidiary Instakart Services Private Limited.

In January 2016, the logistics company had raised $102 million from Klick2Shop by allocating 66.64 crore shares at the face value of Rs 10 apiece.

Ekart has currently 600 delivery hubs in India. Flipkart delivers over 70% of its products through Ekart. As per media reports, it is believed that Flipkart Group is now focusing on increasing the number of its fulfillment centres, decentralizing its warehouses and improving the last mile delivery process for an enhanced consumer experience to compete with Amazon's high-speed delivery standards.

According to logistics experts, by strengthening its logistics services Flipkart is now fully primed to expand into the grocery delivery space with future plans to come up with its one-stop hyperlocal delivery app. The e-commerce firms have now started focusing on reducing discounts and achieving profitability.

Whether it’s digital payments, getting UPI license or entering into new services, both Flipkart and Amazon are going along in the same direction. However, Amazon still remains the major contender for the Flipkart Group. While on the consumer front, both have enjoyed an equal hold over the market. The recent $2 Bn funding by Softbank in Flipkart, has in a way increased its footing against Amazon.

Also read: Flipkart emerges as winner in mega sale battle against Amazon

While aiming to expand its network of fulfillment centres to 41 in 13 states across India with a combined storage space of close to 13 million cubic feet, Amazon opened in Telangana its largest fulfillment centre last month, with 400,000-sq-feet area and about 2.1 million cubic feet of storage space. Amazon already invested Rs 400 crore into its logistics arm, Amazon Transportation Pvt. Ltd in August 2017.

Flipkart has a total of 31 warehouses in the country, which have now doubled in their numbers since October 2016, while Amazon as of today has 41 warehouses with service partner nodes in over 350 cities.

Earlier this year, the e-commerce major had raised $1.4 billion from Microsoft, Tencent and eBay Inc, in a bid to acquire the Indian operations of eBay.

Ekart: website