Cash strapped Flipkart raises dollar 150 million

South African media giant Nasper is leading $150-million investment in online retailer Flipkart, a deal which is said to secure the company's finances for next three years. 

Iconiq Capital, one of Silicon Valley's hottest wealth managers with the likes of Mark Zuckerberg as clients, will be another new investor, while existing shareholders Tiger Global and Accel Partners make follow-on investments in the latest round of fund raise. 
The Nasper-led deal values India's e-commerce leader at around $800 million. MIH India, an arm of Nasper, is pumping a little over $90 million into the five year-oldFlipkart and becomes its second largest shareholder after Tiger. Flipkart's fund raising was closely tracked after media speculated on the ability of India's e-commerce poster boy to attract big funding in tough market conditions. 

Flipkart's future plans are not entirely dependent on an overseas initial public offering (IPO) following the entry of strategic investor like Nasper. 

Large private equity investors which looked at the Flipkart deal remained skeptical about the international listing plans. Last month, TOI reported that Flipkart needed to raise $150 million to keep the business running after bleeding heavily in its bid to establish a fully owned logistics network and a brand. 

Flipkart's sales in the current fiscal will be nearing Rs 2,000 crore with the company targeting maiden operating profit. "This round of funding would fuel our growth plans, and help us achieve our stated ambition of hitting $1 billion in gross merchandise value by 2015," said Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal. 

The money raised in this round will be invested in expanding supply chain capacities, launching new categories and in growing the talent pool to continue building on our leadership position, a statement from Flipkart said. Flipkart has now raised more than $300 million in four rounds of fund mop-up. 

Nasper is Johannesburg-based media conglomerate with expanding presence in digital and electronic payment markets. Nasper's Indian arm also holds investments in photo sharing site Ibibo along with e-commerce site Tradus. 

The other new investor Iconiq Capital is a multi family office managing the wealth of silicon valley's latest millionaires who benefitted from the public listings of start-ups like Facebook, Groupon and Zynga.