Accel Partners has sold a fractional stake in Flipkart to Qatar Investment Authority for $100 million (about Rs 650 crore), in a deal that values India’s biggest online marketplace at $15 billion, according to two people aware of the transaction.
Accel, the first venture investor in Flipkart, remains the second-largest shareholder in the e-commerce company behind New York-based hedge fund Tiger Global Management.
Qatar Investment Authority, the sovereign wealth fund of the Arab nation, was one of five new investors in Flipkart in December 2014 when the online retailer raised $700 million at a valuation of $11 billion.
Flipkart, in a recent regulatory filing, posted a loss of about Rs 2,000 crore for the fiscal year ended March 2015. Valuations of Indian internet companies are beginning to stagnate or drop after being propelled by an unprecedented funding boom in the first half of this year.
Investors are now turning their attention to companies that are focused on making sustainable profits and not relying on investor money to win customers.