Sachin Bansal, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman, Flipkart, has put an end to speculation about the company’s fresh fund raising exercise, stating that there is really no need to raise any money as the company is well funded for a long period of time.
The speculation was in the wake of Amazon’s latest announcement of pumping in $3 billion into the India market as well as Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s imminent entry into the country.
Speaking to reporters on multiple topics after what he described as a ‘courtesy meeting’ with Karnataka’s Minister for Industries & Tourism RV Deshpande, he said that Flipkart will continue to invest in Karnataka, as before, where the company has three of its 17 warehouses and continue to ramp up headcount in the State where it currently employs 5,000 of its total headcount of 35,000.
TDS process Stating that he had not discussed any local taxation issues with the Minister, Bansal said the TDS process recommended in the new GST Bill, on withholding some part of the tax and paying that on behalf of the sellers, will be very difficult for the company to implement in practice.
On the company's markdowns by mutual funds, Bansal said its not something he thinks about at all.
“We are focusing on execution, keeping our heads down and serving our customers. A lot of internet companies in the world went through markdowns.
For instance, Uber raised money at higher valuations than the previous round, despite being marked down by mutual funds.”
As Executive Chairman of Flipkart, Bansal’s largely an external focused role and in creating a positive ecosystem around Flipkart.
“I am still involved in day to day operations of the company as well, including mentoring senior leaders in the company and forging some key partnerships which you will see in the future” he said.
He added that the company’s additional revenue streams from its ads business and eKart logistics business in doing better than expected.
Cost cuts Talking about the company’s recent efforts at cost cutting and slow growth in GMV compared to last year, he said: “There is constant effort on cost cutting, creating efficiencies and growth, no company does it suddenly and neither have we.
“We are seeing good growth across all categories. But, if you look overall from a sector point of view, ecommerce is still at 2 per cent of shopping in India. We still have a long way to go.”