Walmart-owned Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart has set up an internal fund of about $60-$100 million to invest across early-stage startups in areas of including fintech, supply chain and SaaS, reported Economic Times citing people privy to the development.
In a first such move by Flipkart, it intends to obtain a 20-25% stake in return of its investment in startups. The typical per-ticket value could be $2 to $3 million.
This initiative is directed to invest across different start-ups with a bid to strengthen its e-commerce operations. The fund would be handled by the Flipkart group CFO, Emily McNeal.
The report further states that Flipkart will put together an investment committee similar to an investment fund and make its Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) team bigger which will scout for investment bets in early age startups. Flipkart's M&A team has long been working in investment and acquisition of startups.
Flipkart, which has made several big-size acquisitions like Myntra, Jabong and PhonePe, may use the funds to specifically target startups in areas like personal loans, check out finance and those which can lend to SMEs.
Flipkart has made a total of 8 investments including robotics startup GreyOrange, home rental network NestAway and WildCraft, an outdoor brand for performance gear, footwear & clothing. The company has invested $201 million in Flipkart India Pvt. Ltd., the wholesale arm of Flipkart.
Earlier this month, Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy had invested an undisclosed amount in Moglix, a Noida-based B2B industrial goods marketplace backed by Ratan Tata and World Bank's IFC.