Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal is pitching the company's $200 million fundraising as a validation of the e-commerce in India, despite the fact that Flipkart and a few others are the last-men-standing in a battlefield that is strewn with e-commerce casualties, and India's FDI policy disallowing foreign investment in e-commerce spooking most venture capitalists. Venture capitalists are clearly choosing their bets, and Flipkart is among the chosen ones, though some (on Twitter) are saying that this is a case of gamblers ruin; as I write this, I see on twitter, references to Casino Royale, with Flipkart and Amazon at the table. Bansal, though, is optimistic, saying "It's a validation of the e-commerce industry and that it's here to stay and will grow big. It's a validation of our thoughts and beliefs, the way we have thought of customers delight, building the vendor ecosystem, and the way we have been able to continuously coming up with new things that have helped growth. E-commerce last year was over a billion dollars, and research shows it will be $75 billion by 2021. 30-40% of India will be online by 2021, mobile will be bigger than PC, and as the size of retail becomes bigger, and e-commerce companies, and warehousing and logistics will grow." "This is the biggest rounds ever raised by an e-commerce company in India, and among the biggest rounds raised by an internet company in India. It's proof and we're setting a new trend in terms of investment sizes that Internet companies…
