US-based Walmart Inc has signed a deal to buy 77 per cent stake in e-commerce company Flipkart for $16 billion. Walmart’s investment includes $2 billion of new equity funding. With this deal, Sachin Bansal one of the founders of Flipkart has exited his company, selling his 5.96 per cent stake. Binny Bansal, the other co-founder, remains on board as Group CEO.
Founded in September 2007 by IIT-Delhi classmates Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, Flipkart started off as an online bookstore and evolved into an e-commerce marketplace. It had raised funding in multiple rounds from the likes of Accel Partners, Tiger Global, Iconiq, Naspers, Dragoneer, Vulcan Capital, Morgan Stanley, Sofina, DST, GIC, Greenoaks, Qatar Investment Authority, Tencent, eBay, Microsoft and SoftBank.
The Walmart deal gave a complete exit to the likes of SoftBank, Naspers and eBay, with others such as Tiger Global reducing their stake.