Amid India-China standoff, Tencent is back with an investment in Flipkart

Tencent is investing about $62.8 million in Walmart-controlled Flipkart, according to filings sourced from business signals platform paper.vc. The investment is most likely part of Walmart-led $1.2 billion infusion in Flipkart announced in July.

Tencent’s stake in Flipkart is estimated to be between 4%-5.3% currently. China-based Tencent is a minority investor in the e-commerce firm and shares the cap table with other minority investors including Tiger Global, Accel, former CEO and co-founder Binny Bansal, Microsoft and Singapore GIC.

The Walmart-led $1.2 billion equity round gave Flipkart a post-money valuation of $24.9 billion. The investment round was also backed by the company’s existing stakeholders. Flipkart had said in a statement that the funds would be released in two tranches during the financial year.

The funds will come in handy as Flipkart is gearing up for its upcoming Big Billion Days sale. E-commerce companies like Flipkart and Amazon have been expanding their capacities and recruiting fresh staff as order volumes increased manifold on the back of most consumers shifting to online platforms.

On Tuesday, Flipkart said that it expects the upcoming festive sale to create more than 70,000 direct jobs. The direct jobs will be in addition to lakhs of indirect seasonal employment opportunities that the sale event has the potential to generate. Business Insider India