Rumors of investment from Walmart could see Flipkart valued at $20 billion

In a move that would put the company’s valuation at around $20 billion dollars, rumors suggest that Walmart Inc. is considering buying a stake of up to 20 percent in India e-commerce giant Flipkart.

According to a Bloomberg source, the deal would cost Walmart several billion dollars and while nothing has yet been confirmed and the terms are not set in stone, they are getting towards the final stages of a deal.

The move comes just months after Japanese company SoftBank Group offered to buy shares in Flipkart that valued the company at $9-10 billion. Flipkart has also recently received investment recently from the likes of Tencent, eBay, and Microsoft.

First founded in 2007, Flipkart is the current leader in a market that analysts at Morgan Stanley have suggested could hit $200 billion by 2026. This is expected due to the fact that the percentage of the population of India that is connected to the internet is growing. As the percentage of those connected grows, so does the percentage of people who are exposed to the joys of e-commerce.

While Flipkart was established in India, the other major players in the market are Amazon and Alibaba. Based on this and the above stats, it is not surprising then that Walmart, the world’s biggest retailer, would want to enter this market. The deal with Flipkart makes sense as the slow down of the other much-touted Indian e-commerce giant Snapdeal means that the only other real option for Walmart is entering the market alone.

The competitive nature of the India e-commerce market has recently even been seen in the Android market with a series of exclusive deals. Just last month, Alcatel announced that it would only be selling its smartphones through Flipkart. Meanwhile, Samsung’s Galaxy On range of smartphones are sold exclusively through Amazon.