Flipkart, Walmart invest an additional $30m in Ninjacart

Indian ecommerce startup Flipkart announced its second round of investment with its US-based parent Walmart in fresh produce supply chain startup Ninjacart. The joint investment amounts to US$30 million, as reported by The Economic Times.

Last December, Flipkart and Singapore-based GEC3 had invested 71.83 crore rupees (US$10 million) in Ninjacart in a Series C round of funding.

Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy with his team. Photo credit: Flipkart Stories.

Ninjacart will use the capital to expand into new markets and build new offerings and supply chains for emerging customer segments, while continuing to innovate the supply chain to make it more efficient, reliable, and profitable. The transaction is expected to close by the end of October 2020.

The investment in the Bangalore-based grocery delivery platform comes as lockdowns caused by the pandemic have resulted in a surge in demand for online grocery delivery services. This has led to new entrants such as JioMart, which is challenging existing leaders in the industry such as Bigbasket, Amazon Pantry, and Grofers.

Flipkart expects Ninjacart to play a big role in growing its Supermarket (grocery) and Flipkart Quick (hyperlocal) businesses by providing fresh produce to its customers and its last-mile network.

“Our pilots and current business engagement with Ninjacart have been encouraging as we leverage technology to address changing consumer behavior across the country,” said Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO of the Flipkart Group.

Thirukumaran Nagarajan, CEO and co-founder of Ninjacart, said that the fresh investment from Walmart and the Flipkart Group takes them one step closer to their vision of making food safe and accessible for billions of people.