Walmart Deepens Grip on Flipkart with $1.4B Stake Acquisition from Tiger Global

In a $1.4 billion deal, Walmart Inc. has acquired a significant additional stake in India's largest online marketplace, Flipkart, boosting its majority share to strengthen its e-commerce operations in the country further. The move was revealed in a letter to investors from Tiger Global Management, the American investment firm from which the stake was bought.

The latest acquisition will further increase Walmart's stake in India's Flipkart since it already owned a 77% stake which it purchased for around $16 billion in 2018. According to Reuters, the new deal brings the value of the Indian online store to $35 billion. Flipkart's valuation dropped from its $38 billion valuation in its 2021 funding round.

The deal comes after it was reported earlier this year that Flipkart investors - Tiger Global and Accel - are in talks to sell their remaining stake to Walmart. It was revealed that the former owns around four percent of the company.

At any rate, the transaction for Tiger Global's sale of its Flipkart stake to Walmart took place not long ago, but the exact date is unknown. Bloomberg reported that Walmart is now the company's major stakeholder holder, and this move is part of its push to scale up its online retail business in India.

Tiger Global was listed as one of the main investors of Flipkart. The company initially invested $8.6 million in 2009 when it was just starting. Through funding rounds, its valuation rose to $42 million, and later, the investment company put in another $1.2 billion between 2010 and 2015.

"We are grateful for our partnership with the Flipkart team and for the opportunity to invest in the company through early chapters in its growth," Business Standard quoted Tiger Global as saying in its to investors.

Photo by: Rubaitul Azad/Unsplash