India’s largest ecommerce player Flipkart has pumped in Rs 961.4 crore into its logistics arm eKart according to filings with Registrar of Companies. Dated September 28.
Operated by Instakart Services, eKart has raised this sum through allocation of 15.38 crore shares at Rs 62.51 apiece to Singapore-based group firm Klick2Shop Logistics International, as per a VCCircle report.
Klick2shop is the controlling entity of Instakart and is most likely a subsidiary of Flipkart, the Singapore-based flagship parent of the online retailer.
The share price is higher than eKart’s previous funding round where in January 2016 it raised Rs 666.49 crore from Klick2shop through allocation of 66.64 crore shares at Rs 10 apiece.
This latest tranche of funds comes after Flipkart raised a massive amount, one of $2.5 billion amount from SoftBank following the failure of Snapdeal-Flipkart deal. In April, it raised $1.4 billion from Microsoft, Tencent and eBay. In the same transaction Flipkart also acquired the Indian operations of eBay.
Amidst stiff competition between Flipkart and Amazon, Flipkart has been ramping up operations, especially logistics infrastructure. VCCircle reports that the ecommerce major recently opened nine warehouses to handle large appliances and ensure next-day deliveries during the festive sales season.
Amazon too infused Rs 400 crore into its logistics arm Amazon Transportation in August. Amazon too, has been opening fulfilment centres across the country to ramp up its logistics infrastructure, taking the number of fulfilment centres to 41 across 13 states, Telangana being its largest with 400,000-sq-feet area and about 2.1 million cubic feet of storage space.
In the recent flagship annual sales event that took place during September 20-24, both ecommerce players went all out to lure customers with offers and discounts.
As per RedSeer Consulting, Flipkart has reportedly clocked 40% year-on-year growth and generated $1.05 billion. It is also said to have beat Amazon
As per industry estimates, Flipkart generated gross sales of over Rs 5,000 crore driven by sales of Apple and Xiaomi smartphones and Vu televisions. Amazon India, on the other hand is said to have generated gross sales of Rs 2,500-2,700 crore in its four-day Great Indian Festival sale. Flipkart’s numbers, however, also include Myntra and Jabong.
Amazon has contested these claims saying it saw more desktop and mobile website visits.