Flipkart to relocate HQ to India ahead of IPO

Flipkart, the Walmart-owned Indian e-commerce startup that closely fights Amazon in the South Asian market, is preparing to shift its headquarters back to India from Singapore as the company prepares to file for an IPO on Indian stock exchanges.

On Monday, Flipkart said the move “represents a natural evolution, aligning our holding structure with our core operations, the vast potential of the Indian economy.”

The e-commerce giant, which started its operations in 2007 in Bengaluru, moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2011 to attract more foreign investments, benefit from tax advantages, and better navigate bureaucratic hurdles and political challenges in India.

“As a company born and nurtured in India, this transition will further enhance our focus and agility in serving our customers, sellers, partners, and communities to continue contributing to the nation’s growing digital economy and entrepreneurship,” a Flipkart spokesperson said in a statement.

The relocation is subject to requisite approvals, the startup said, without disclosing a specific timeline. However, Flipkart is expected to file for an IPO in the country sometime next year.

In 2022, Walmart-backed PhonePe, which split from Flipkart in late 2022, moved its headquarters to India from Singapore. Several other startups, including Zepto and Groww, have also relocated their headquarters to India in the last few months as they sought public listings on the Indian stock exchanges.

However, India’s current public market environment is not as appealing as it had been up until late last year, as the market is going through some corrections and is impacted by macro conditions. IPOs made up around $19 billion of the record $70 billion equity deal volume reached in India last year, with 11 IPOs priced at above $500 million, per a report by Goldman Sachs.

Nonetheless, investors are optimistic about the growth potential in the Indian market, as several companies are waiting to go public this year and next.

“The supportive valuation environment has spurred issuer activity. A lot of the unicorns who were thinking of going public in the U.S. switched to India because they felt India supported a better valuation,” said Sudarshan Ramakrishnan, co-head of India investment banking at Goldman Sachs.

The latest move by Flipkart also comes almost a year after raising $350 million from Google as part of a nearly $1 billion funding round, which it kicked off in 2023. The startup was valued at $36 billion in the last investment.