Flipkart secures 1 billion dollars in fresh funding

Flipkart, India's largest e-commerce group, announced Tuesday that it has secured 1 billion dollars in fresh funding from a group of investors, taking

its value to almost 7 billion dollars.

According to market sources, Flipkart would have raised over 1.7 billion dollars from investors, including the current transaction.

As reported by local media, this last round of investment would have valued Flipkart at around 7 billion dollars, over twice the 2.5-3 billion dollars it got in May, when it had its previous funding round (it raised 210 million dollars back then).

"The funds will be used to make long-term strategic investments in India, especially in mobile technology," Flipkart co-founder and CEO Sachin Bansal said in a press conference.

"By 2020, India will have more than half a billion mobile Internet users. Our intense focus on mobile and technology puts us in a unique position to take advantage of this massive opportunity," Bansal added.

With regards to its rumoured initial public offering (IPO) plans, the company's CEO said that an "IPO is not in consideration at all, we are not thinking about it. We have not settled on a business model that we can take public.”

Flipkart already counts on Accel Partners, Dragoneer Investment Group, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Sofina and Vulcan Capital among its other investors.