Flipkart's latest round of investment comes at a time when the government's proposed changes to existing laws seek to tighten the screws around FDI. The Flipkart Group on Monday announced that it raised US$3.6 billion in funding. The fundraiser included participation from sovereign funds, private equity, and crossovers in addition to Walmart. The round was led by GIC (a Singaporean sovereign wealth fund), Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and Walmart, along with investments from sovereign funds DisruptAD, Qatar Investment Authority, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, Tencent, Willoughby Capital, Antara Capital, Franklin Templeton, and Tiger Global. The investment values the Group at US $37.6 billion. "With this development, Flipkart will continue to make deeper investments across people, technology, supply chain and infrastructure," the company said in its press release announcing the round. "Through its expanding grocery and last-mile delivery programs, the Group will also work with kiranas to help them digitize and grow," the company added. Flipkart’s subsidiaries include logistics and supply chain arm Ekart, and Shopsy, a newly launched service on a reseller model leveraging Flipkart's catalogue. Flipkart is also a majority shareholder in payments app PhonePe. E-commerce regulation looms The investment round, among the largest in the e-commerce space so far, comes even as online retailers struggle with looming e-commerce regulations that strike at the heart of their business model. The draft amendments to the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020, tighten the screws with regard to Foreign Direct Investment that only e-commerce companies that maintain their…
