Is IPO-bound Flipkart different under Kalyan Krishnamurthy?

When Kalyan Krishnamuthy took over as the CEO of Flipkart Group in 2018, shortly after the exits of cofounders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, there was speculation on whether the company could keep its culture and growth intact. Flipkart had just been acquired by Walmart and was undergoing a management reshuffle while also fielding against the government’s tightening ecommerce policies.

Three years later, Flipkart has grown from a consumer internet startup to a large retail business. It has managed to retain many of its key early employees, some of whom now lead large charters at the company. Most importantly, Flipkart has been able to maintain its leadership position against Amazon India, which many had expected to be tough. This was because of concerns that Walmart’s involvement and the exits of the founders would eventually hurt Flipkarts startup culture, particularly under a hired CEO.

But things seemed to have worked out. In the runup to its IPO planned for next year, Flipkart is close to concluding external funding of $3-4 billion from investors including SoftBank and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority at a valuation of $32-34 billion.

“With how things have been going, there is a lot of interest from global like-minded investors who want a big India bet. This will also set the floor price for the IPO next year, hopefully at $50 billion,” said a person aware of the negotiations.