Flipkart eyes more acquisitions; in talks to invest in Swiggy, UrbanLadder

Moneycontrol News

One of India's largest e-commerce companies, Flipkart is mulling more investments and acquisitions in the startups space, according to a report by Mint.

The Bangalore-based etailer has more than USD 4 billion in cash, is planning to diversify its business in a bid to take on its rival Amazon India.

According to the report, Flipkart has held talks to invest in food delivery aggregator Swiggy, services firm UrbanClap and furniture startup UrbanLadder, along with insurance and wealth management startups.

It was earlier reported that the company was in talks to pick up "a large minority stake" in BookMyShow, which would place the movie ticketing platform's value at USD 500-700 million.

Currently, Reliance Industries-owned Network18 is the single largest shareholder in BookMyShow with a 39 percent stake.

Flipkart recently invested USD 500 million in its wallet payments subsidiary PhonePe, which is battling SoftBank-backed Paytm, and Amazon Pay.

This year alone, the company has raised nearly USD 3 billion from SoftBank, Tencent, eBay and Microsoft.

Flipkart, in its filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in September, said that it had increased its reserves for financing acquisitions and investments from Rs 3,000 crore to roughly Rs 8,000 crore.