47 Facts About Flipkart

Flipkart is an Indian e-commerce company, headquartered in Bangalore, and incorporated in Singapore as a private limited company.

Flipkart initially focused on online book sales before expanding into other product categories such as consumer electronics, fashion, home essentials, groceries, and lifestyle products.

Flipkart has a dominant position in the apparel segment, bolstered by its acquisition of Myntra, and was described as being "neck and neck" with Amazon in the sale of electronics and mobile phones.

Flipkart owns PhonePe, a mobile payments service based on the UPI.

Flipkart was founded in October 2007 by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, alumni of the IIT, Delhi and former Amazon employees.

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Flipkart initially focused on online book sales with country-wide shipping.

Flipkart slowly grew in prominence and was receiving 100 orders per day by 2008.

In 2010, Flipkart acquired the Bangalore-based social book discovery service WeRead from Lulu.

In February 2014, Flipkart partnered with Motorola Mobility to be the exclusive Indian retailer of its Moto G smartphone.

Flipkart subsequently held exclusive Indian launches for other smartphones, including the Xiaomi Mi 3 in July 2014, and the Redmi 1S and Redmi Note in late 2014.

On 6 October 2014, coinciding with the company's anniversary and the Diwali season, Flipkart held a major sale that it promoted as "Big Billion Day".

Flipkart stated that it would use Appiterate's technology to enhance its mobile services.

In December 2015, Flipkart purchased a minority stake in the digital mapping provider MapmyIndia.

In October 2015, Flipkart reprised the Big Billion Days event as a multi-day event exclusive to the Flipkart app.

Flipkart bolstered its supply chain and introduced more fulfillment centers to meet customer demand.

Flipkart achieved a gross merchandise volume of US$300 million during the event, with the largest volumes coming from fashion sales and the largest value coming from mobiles.

In January 2017, Flipkart made a US$2 million investment in TinyStep, a parenting information startup.

In July 2017, Flipkart made an offer to acquire its main domestic competitor, Snapdeal, for US$700 to 800 million.

Flipkart stated that "there is the huge growth potential for e-commerce in India and significant opportunity for multiple players to succeed in India's diverse, domestic market.

Flipkart invested US$4 million in the customer engagement and rewards platform EasyRewardz on 19 November 2019.

In 2020, Flipkart Wholesale launched a digital platform for kiranas and MSMEs.

Flipkart announced it will roll out Flipkart Quick, a hyperlocal 90-minute delivery service for product categories such as groceries, home accessories, mobile phones, stationery, and more.

The following month, Flipkart acquired the intellectual property of gaming startup Mech Mocha for an undisclosed amount.

In November 2020, Flipkart acquired augmented reality company Scapic, which provides a suite of tools to create and publish augmented reality, virtual reality, and 3D content quickly and without coding.

In July 2021, Flipkart launched its social commerce marketplace called Shopsy, which allowed individuals and small businesses to direct sell and resell products to customers via social media channels.

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Gujarati language was added to their platform in 2021 which resulted in Flipkart being available in 8 local Indian languages that were Gujarati, Bengali, Odia, Hindi, Telegu, Kannada, Marathi and Tamil.

In 2022, Flipkart entered the Non-Fungible Tokens and Web3 segment by letting the Indian purchasers of Nothing Phone 1 to get Nothing's NFT through the app called Nothing Community Dots.

In 2012, Flipkart co-founders sold WS Retail to a consortium of investors led by Rajeev Kuchhal.

Flipkart started Flipkart Health+ in 2021 that deals into providing medicines and health services through technology.

Flipkart has made 22 acquisitions and 24 investments, spending over US$395M for the acquisitions.

Flipkart has invested in multiple sectors such as e-commerce, consumer electronics, local services and more.

On 24 August 2012, Flipkart announced the completion of its 4th round of funding, netting a total of US$150 million from MIH and ICONIQ Capital.

Flipkart announced on 10 July 2013 that it had raised an additional US$200 million from existing investors, including Tiger Global, Naspers, Accel Partners and Iconiq Capital.

In July 2013, Flipkart raised US$160 million from private equity investors.

In October 2013, it was reported that Flipkart had raised an additional US$160 million from new investors Dragoneer Investment Group, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, Sofina SA, and Vulcan Inc, with a share of the funding coming from existing investor Tiger Global.

On 26 May 2014, Flipkart announced that it had raised US$210 million from Yuri Milner's DST Global and its existing investors Tiger Global, Naspers, and Iconiq Capital.

On 29 July 2014, Flipkart announced that it raised US$1 billion from Tiger Global, Accel Partners, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, and a new investor, Singaporean sovereign-wealth fund GIC.

On 20 December 2014, Flipkart announced its filing application with Singapore-based company regulator ACRA to become a public company.

The US$700 million in funding raised by Flipkart added new investors to the company's board, including Baillie Gifford, Greenoaks Capital, Steadview Capital, T Rowe Price Associates, and Qatar Investment Authority.

In March 2021, it was reported that Flipkart was considering the possibility of going public through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company to speed up its listing process in the United States.

In November 2012, the Indian Enforcement Directorate began investigating Flipkart for alleged violations of the foreign direct investment regulations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act of 1999.

On 30 November 2012, Flipkart's offices were raided by the Enforcement Directorate.

Flipkart operates several house brands, including Citron and Digiflip (formerly for electronics and accessories).

In 2017, Flipkart launched additional house brands, including Billion, Smartbuy (electronics accessories, effectively replacing Digiflip), and MarQ (for large appliances, although its launch was complicated by a trademark dispute with an existing company, Marc Enterprises).

Flipkart launched an in-app streaming service called Flipkart Video in August 2019, so as to compete with industry rivals like Amazon who were offering premium video options.

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Vendors on Flipkart have faced several challenges while doing business on the company's marketplace, to the extent that some of them have quit the portal.

Some of these challenges include Flipkart's alleged unfair policies towards sellers, the lack of a competent logistics service, and customer returns that are a result of consumer fraud.