Flipkart, the Walmart-owned Indian e-commerce startup that intently fights Amazon within the South Asian market, is making ready to shift its headquarters again to India from Singapore as the corporate prepares to file for an IPO on Indian inventory exchanges.
On Monday, Flipkart stated the transfer “represents a pure evolution, aligning our holding construction with our core operations, the huge potential of the Indian economic system.”
The e-commerce big, which began its operations in 2007 in Bengaluru, moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2011 to draw extra international investments, profit from tax benefits, and higher navigate bureaucratic hurdles and political challenges in India.
“As an organization born and nurtured in India, this transition will additional improve our focus and agility in serving our prospects, sellers, companions, and communities to proceed contributing to the nation’s rising digital economic system and entrepreneurship,” a Flipkart spokesperson stated in an announcement.
The relocation is topic to requisite approvals, the startup stated, with out disclosing a particular timeline. Nonetheless, Flipkart is predicted to file for an IPO within the nation someday subsequent yr.
In 2022, Walmart-backed PhonePe, which cut up from Flipkart in late 2022, moved its headquarters to India from Singapore. A number of different startups, together with Zepto and Groww, have additionally relocated their headquarters to India in the previous few months as they sought public listings on the Indian inventory exchanges.
Nonetheless, India’s present public market setting is not as interesting because it had been up till late final yr, because the market goes by way of some corrections and is impacted by macro situations. IPOs made up round $19 billion of the file $70 billion fairness deal quantity reached in India final yr, with 11 IPOs priced at above $500 million, per a report by Goldman Sachs.
Nonetheless, buyers are optimistic concerning the progress potential within the Indian market, as a number of firms are ready to go public this yr and subsequent.
“The supportive valuation setting has spurred issuer exercise. Numerous the unicorns who have been considering of going public within the U.S. switched to India as a result of they felt India supported a greater valuation,” stated Sudarshan Ramakrishnan, co-head of India funding banking at Goldman Sachs.
The newest transfer by Flipkart additionally comes nearly a yr elevating $350 million from Google as a part of an almost $1 billion funding spherical, which it kicked off in 2023. The startup is valued at $36 billion within the final funding.
