Morgan Stanley upgrades Flipkart’s valuation to $9.36 billion

By

Maverick Martins

Published
Nov 30, 2017

After a series of markdowns, finally there is some good news for India's largest e-commerce marketplace Flipkart as one of its largest mutual fund investor Morgan Stanley has upgraded its valuation to $9.36 billion for the quarter ended September 30, 2017.
 

Last year Morgan Stanley had downgraded the e-commerce firm by pegging the valuation to $5.37 billion. After five consecutive markdowns of India's most valuable startup, the upgradation of Morgan Stanley comes as a major boost to Flipkart.
 
The e-commerce major is engaged in a fierce battle with the world’s leading e-commerce giant Amazon which is investing heavily into the Indian market to expand its presence and establish its dominance over Flipkart.

Flipkart has raised around $4 billion this year in a series of funding lead by Softbank with $2.4 billion and another $1.4 billion from Tencent, eBay and Microsoft. The company had stated that the funds were raised at an estimated valuation of $11.6 billion.
 
"Markdowns or markups are a theoretical exercise by small investors. From our perspective, valuation is when we raise money. When we raise money, our value will be clear in the market," a Flipkart spokesperson had said earlier.
 
The company is looking to use the current funds to diversify its business and in talks to acquire smaller startups across different verticals in a quest to take the firm back to its glory days. Flipkart’s peak valuation was $15.2 billion in July 2015.