In the wake of Walmart's $16B acquisition of Indian e-commerce site Flipkart, we round up the top Indian tech exits since 2010.
This week, Walmart bought Indian e-commerce site Flipkart for $16B. This is, by a long shot, the biggest exit for an Indian tech company.
In total, the company has seen its valuation grow over 1000x. In Q4’09, when Accel India invested in a $1M series A round in the company, it was valued at $4M. By Q3’17, when Softbank Group bought secondary market shares in the company for $1.2B, Flipkart was valued at $17B — $19B.
In addition to being the largest exit, the e-commerce site is also the most well-funded company in India’s tech ecosystem, with over $6B in total disclosed funding. It has raised multiple rounds of funding from many deep-pocketed investors.
New York’s Tiger Global Management, which has invested roughly $1B across 9 rounds to the company, cashed out with nearly $3B of returns, according to some sources. Flipkart’s other major investors include Japan’s SoftBank Group, South Africa’s Naspers, China’s Tencent Holdings, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, HDFC Bank, and more.
Using CB Insights data, we listed out the top VC-backed first exits in India’s tech startup ecosystem since 2012.
Compared to Flipkart, India’s other tech exits are much smaller.
The country’s second-biggest exit since 2010 was MakeMyTrip, which went public in 2010 at a valuation of $477M. FreeCharge, an app to add mobile balance, followed closely at $450M, and was sold to e-commerce site Snapdeal in Q1’15.
| Company | Valuation ($M) | Round | Date | Acquirer/IPO | Other Investors | Total funding ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flipkart | 20779 | Corporate Majority | 5/9/2018 | Walmart | Accel, DST Globa, HDFC Bank, ICONIQ Capital, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Naspers, Qatar Investment Authority, SoftBank Group, Tiger Global Managemen, Walmart | 6115.11 |
| MakeMyTrip | 477 | IPO | 8/17/2010 | Public | Ctrip, SAIF Partners, Softbank Asia | 15 |
| FreeCharge | 450 | Acquired | 3/12/2015 | Snapdeal | Axis Bank, Sequoia Capital India, Snapdeal | 201.74 |
| Myntra | 343.17 | Acquired | 5/22/2014 | Flipkart | Accel India, Flipkart, IDG Ventures India, Kalaari Capital, Tiger Global Management | 177.68 |
| Indiavidual Learning | 257.62 | Corporate Majority | 4/9/2018 | Reliance Industries | Kalaari Capital, Lightbox Ventures, Reliance Industries | 4 |
| Yatra | 218 | Reverse Merger | 7/13/2016 | Terrapin 3 Acquisition | IDG Ventures India, Intel Capital | 99.5 |
| CommonFloor | 200 | Acquired | 10/8/2015 | Quikr | Accel India, capitalG | 57.56 |
| TaxiForSure | 200 | Acquired | 3/2/2015 | Olacabs | Accel India;Bessemer Venture Partners;Blume Ventures;Dead;Helion Venture Partners;Olacabs | 50 |
| ItzCash Card | 123.5 | Corporate Majority | 5/24/2017 | Ebix | Intel Capital, Matrix Venture Partners | 34 |
| redBus | 100 | Acquired | 6/16/2013 | Ibibo Group | Ibibo Group, Inventus Capital Partners | 9 |