Flipkart beefs up investment in logistics arm eKart, infuses over Rs 1,600 crore

Key Highlights:

• Flipkart invested Rs 1,632.81 crore in eKart
• Klick2Shop Logistics Services International Pte to allocate equity shares at Rs 62.51 per share
• Ekart has over 30 warehouses

The e-commerce battle in India heated up as home grown Flipkart infused fresh capital into its logistics arm. Flipkart has invested over Rs 1,600 crore Instakart Services Pvt. Ltd or as it is commonly known as ‘eKart’.

The total amount of investment was cited as Rs 1,632.81 crore or $257.3 million, a report by VCC Circle said on Wednesday.

The reported added that the infusion has been done through Singapore-based group company Klick2Shop Logistics Services International Pte by allocating equity shares at Rs 62.51 per share.

Klick2Shop had earlier invested Rs 961.4 crore in eKart in October 2017. Flipkart also raised Rs 1,309.20 crore ($206.20 million), while the remaining Rs 327.41 crore ($ 51.56 million), in November last year.

Its announcement to invest further into its logistics arm comes after Chinese conglomerate Alibaba Group is investing $100 million in Pune-based logistics company XpressBees.

Flipkart competes with the US-based e-commerce giant, Amazon. 

Ekart has over 30 warehouses and fulfilment centres (FC) while Amazon runs 41 FCs in India alone.

On Monday, Flipkart chief executive Kalyan Krishnamurthy told The Economic Times that the company’s new focus metric would be increasing its monthly active users and this is expected to grow over two-fold in 2018.