Flipkart’s Singapore holding company has poured yet another round of funding in the Indian wholesale arm Flipkart India Pvt. Ltd.
The amount invested – Rs 1,431 crore – becomes a surprise as it comes just a month after a larger round worth Rs 2,190 crore. Together, these rounds add up to make the wholesale arm Rs 3,621 crore richer than it was more than a month ago.
Within this duration, the company has also seen a major upheaval as far as government policies are concerned. The new updates in the FDI policy for e-commerce companies has directly affected companies like Flipkart and Amazon.
The wholesale arm of Flipkart which purchases goods in stock from manufacturers and then resells it to select merchants on its website, generally the ones the group has invested in or acquired.
With the new provisions in the FDI Policy by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), any seller that has accepted investment from the e-commerce platform or one of its group companies will not be allowed to transact over the marketplace.
However, both Amazon and Flipkart have appealed the government for an extension in the compliance deadline as both the parties engage in this activity.
Recently, the unit had reported an 8.5X jump in losses from Rs 243.7 crore in FY17 to Rs 2,062.6 crore in FY18. It remains to be seen how, with the new policy, and the investments, the unit performs in the future.
This development was first reported by ET.
