To acquire Tiger, Accel, Binny Bansal’s stake in Flipkart, Walmart paid $3.5 B
Walmart has paid Accel Partners, Tiger Global, and co-founder Binny Bansal of the e-commerce marketplace $3.5 billion to acquire the remaining shares of Flipkart. This was revealed in an SEC filing by the biggest retailer in the world.
Tiger Global invested over $1 billion in the Bengaluru-based company over several rounds, while Accel was Flipkart’s initial backer.
Tiger Global reportedly held a 4.7% stake in Flipkart and made $1 billion in a secondary transaction in July that valued the company at $35 billion, according to estimates in the media.
As he sold his stake at the same price, Binny Bansal made $650 million. The primary funding round of $3.6 billion in 2021 from GIC, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and SoftBank, among others, valued Flipkart at $37.6 billion. This led to a lower valuation for the secondary transaction.
To make up for the value lost as a result of the PhonePe split, Flipkart paid its employees $700 million in July. More than 24,000 employees, including former Flipkart and Myntra employees, reportedly benefited from the cash payout, though the precise number of recipients was not made public.
Flipkart and PhonePe split apart and became independent businesses in December 2022. This hive-off caused PhonePe to change into a company with its entire headquarters in India.
Walmart is believed to own about 90% of Flipkart following the acquisition from these investors and Binny Bansal. In August 2018, Walmart paid roughly $16 billion for a 77% stake in the business, representing the majority.