Google is learned to be making a significant investment of nearly $350 million in Indian e-commerce company Flipkart, which is owned by Walmart. The investment marks growing involvement of the search giant in the Indian market. The investment is part of a larger funding round. Flipkart secured nearly $1 billion in 2023. Meanwhile, Flipkart is also being backed by several high-profile names.
Google will be providing cloud services to Flipkart to enhance its technological capabilities as well as streamline its operations.
Walmart invested $600 million in 2023 and Microsoft is another notable investor. The backing shows strong interest of major tech companies in the Indian e-commerce market.
Flipkart is currently valued at $36 billion and is a leading player in the Indian e-commerce sector. It serves millions of customers across the country. It also owns fashion e-commerce platform Myntra. Bernstein report reveals it controls 48% of India’s e-commerce market.
However, the e-commerce market is not so smooth for Flipkart. It is faceing stiff competition from Reliance Retail, Amazon, Meesho and other such companies. Reliance Retail is operated by Mukesh Ambani and is the largest retail chain in India. It is rapidly expanding its e-commerce presence. Reliance Retail was valued at $100 billion in 2023 after a $2 billion investment by QIA, ADIA and KKR.
India’s e-commerce market is projected to be worth $133 billion by 2025. Bernstein analyst notes that the market leaders are Amazon and Flipkart while Blinkit, Meesho and Nykaa are emerging leaders.
Google views India as a crucial market. It has been lately increasing its investments in India. It announced plans to invest $10 billion in Indian businesses in 2020. It has invested $4.5 billion in Jio Platforms and $1 billion in Airtel.
