Flipkart infuses $553 Mn in marketplace biz, expands ESOP pool

Flipkart had emerged as a leader in the horizontal e-commerce play in India with Rs 43,357 crore topline in FY21 while its arch-nemesis Amazon’s revenue stood in the range of Rs 2,000 crore. To maintain its lead in the ongoing fiscal year (FY22) over Amazon, Flipkart Singapore has invested over half a billion U.S. dollars in its marketplace business.

The e-commerce giant has pumped Rs 4,205 crore or $553.2 million into its marketplace business, Flipkart’s regulatory filings in Singapore show.

The cash infusion has come at a time when Flipkart is beefing up its grocery and social commerce segments aggressively. The Bengaluru-based company’s grocery business expanded to over 1000 cities in the past year whereas Shopsy (its social commerce business) has also been gaining prominence in terms of downloads.

According to analysts tracking top e-commerce companies including Flipkart, the infusion will help its marketplace biz to scale new initiatives. “Grocery is a priority for Flipkart- they have been setting up supply chain infrastructure across eastern and central India at speed,” said one of the analysts requesting anonymity. “The major chunk of this infusion is expected to go towards ramping up [their] grocery vertical against deep-pocketed groups like Tata and Reliance.”

Flipkart has been doing slot-based grocery delivery but it recently started competing with Dunzo, Zepto, BlinkIt and Swiggy Instamart with Flipkart Quick which ensures delivery in 45 minutes.

Apart from this infusion, Flipkart Singapore also had expanded its ESOP trust. The company has allotted 21,370 equity shares worth Rs 30.71 crore or $4.4 million to the ESOP trust, a separate filings show.

It’s worth mentioning that Flipkart has the largest ESOP pool among all Indian origin startups. According to a report by Longhouse Consulting, Flipkart has created a Rs 17,000 crore or $2.26 billion worth ESOP pool whereas Oyo has created a pool of Rs 7,569 crore [$1 billion].  The list followed by Zomato, Paytm, Nykaa and Byju’s with an ESOP pool of $750 millon, $610 million, $570 million and $412 million respectively.