Indian eCommerce Startup Captures Unicorn Status

With a surge of fresh funding, eCommerce company Shopclues said it has achieved a billion dollar valuation from investors.

As The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday (Jan 12.), sources close to the India-based Shopclues, which acts as a marketplace platform for other retailers, said the company raised nearly $150 million in its latest round of funding and is now valued at $1.1 billion. According to WSJ, Shopclues is the seventh Indian startup firm to join the unicorn club by reaching a valuation of more than $1 billion.

The funding round was led by the Singaporean government’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, with participation from existing investors Tiger Global and Nexus Venture Partners.

Shopclues Chief Executive Sanjay Sethi said the surge of new capital will be invested into advertising efforts and improving the company’s technology in preparation for going public in an IPO planned to take place sometime next year.

Flipkart, another eCommerce unicorn based in India, is also reportedly planning to go public sometime in the near future.

Amid chatter that an IPO for Flipkart could take place sometime soon in the U.S., which would be a major move from an Indian company looking to make its mark abroad, news broke Monday that Sachin Bansal, Flipkart CEO and cofounder, would be stepping down from the role. Its other cofounder, Binny Bansal, the company’s COO, will be moving into the top spot.

But for this eight-year-old eCommerce firm, the prospect of going public has been tossed around but only as a concept. This new CEO shift, however, has some questioning if this is a sign that the company is looking to gear up for its IPO plans. An unnamed source told Reuters that having the CEO and chairman title be split into multiple roles allows the company to focus on its plans long-term, which would, of course, mean a public debut possibility.

“Today, we are in a very strong leadership position, with over 60 percent market share of the mCommerce market, 50 million customers and clear leadership in smartphones and fashion,” Binny said in the company statement. “The journey ahead is equally exciting and challenging.”