US retail giant is reportedly in talks to invest up to whopping $1 billion in homegrown e-commerce player Flipkart, according to a latest report from Bloomberg.
As per the report, Walmart might take a minority stake in Flipkart which is a major rival for Amazon India. Both the companies are apparently engaged in early talks and a meeting is scheduled this week. The latest report comes only a week after Flipkart announced that it has over 100 million registered customers across desktop website, mobile application and mobile websites. The gap between Amazon and Flipkart in terms of gross merchandise value (GMV) is closing, with investors and analysts estimating it to be 15-20%.
If the funding goes through, Flipkart could use it to further compete with Amazon. Both Walmart and Flipkart have not commented on the possible investment. Earlier this year it was reported that Chinese retail behemoth, Alibaba is planning to foray into Indian e-commerce market. The e-commerce market in India is expected to nealry double to Rs 2,11,005 crore by December, according to industry body Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB.