Binny Bansal: The next CEO of Flipkart
Flipkart's Chief Executive Sachin Bansal announced that he will be stepping down from his role, and the company's co-founder Binny Bansal will take his place. Sachin Bansal will continue to serve as the company's executive chairman and "will provide strategic direction for Flipkart, mentor the senior leadership of the company and look for new investment opportunities".
An online shopping giant is born
Flipkart is a giant in the e-commerce world and was founded in 2007 by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal. It is a Singapore based company (registered there) which operates in India from its Bangalore headquarters employing as many as 33000 people. Flipkart even launched its own label "DigiFlip" with sells products like "tablets, USBs, and laptop bags" etc.
Flipkart- investors pet project
Accel-India gave $1 million in 2009 and Tiger-Global gave US$20 million in 2011 to Flipkart. It raised $150 million in August 2012 from MIH and ICONIQ-Capital. In 2013,it got $200 million from Tiger-Global, Naspers,Accel Partners and Iconiq Capital and $160 million from new investors Dragoneer Investment Group,Morgan Stanley,Sofina- SA, Vulcan Inc. In 2014,Flipkart raised $210 million from Yuri Millner's DST-Global and its existing investors
Flipkart and its shiny acquisitions
Flipkart began its string of acquisitions in 2010 with WeRead. In 2011, it acquired Mime360, and Chakpak.com which is a Bollywood news site. It acquired Letsbuy.com in 2012 which was an electronics marketplace, for an estimated US$25 million. In 2014, it took over Myntra.com for approximately Rs. 20 billion. On 29 April 2015, Flipkart took over AppIterate - a mobile marketing platform.
Flipkart raises a whopping 1 billion dollars
Flipkart raised a massive $1 billion investment from its existing investors which was allegedly the "biggest by an Indian company in a single round of funding." With this investment, the company reached a valuation of $7 billion. Its investors were "Naspers, Tiger Global Manager, DST Global, ICONIQ Capital, Accel Partners, Morgan Stanley Investment Management and GIC Private Limited from Singapore".
Flipkart valued at $15 billion
After its latest funding in May 2015, Flipkart was valued at $15 Billion.
Flipkart launches grocery delivery
E-commerce major Flipkart launched its 'Flipkart Nearby' app on the Google Play store. The service was launched only in select neighbourhoods of Bengaluru to begin with. Flipkart's Nearby App distributes groceries and food and divides it into sections like "branded food, groceries, staples, beverages, breakfast, dairy, and eggs" to give a supermarket kind on the app. Deliveries would be available from 10am to 8am.
Mukesh Ambani to be Flipkart's newest challenger
Flipkart will be facing competition from Mukesh Ambani who has announced that the Reliance Industries will start its e-commerce portal for "electronics and fashion goods by the end of this year."
Flipkart forays into the offline world
Flipkart has now decided to foray into the offline sales business with an "assisted e-commerce model". Their offline presence will start with phones. Customers can touch and feel the products at these designated stores and they can then place the order on the Flipkart app. Customers can either receive the delivery at their home or take it from the same store.
Google's Surjit Chatterjee joins Flipkart
On 3 November 2015, Flipkart has appointed Surojit Chatterjee, former Google product management director, as senior VP and head of consumer experience and growth (founding member of Google's mobile search ads).
