Flipkart announces it is nearing profitability

E-commerce giant Flipkart is close to becoming profitable, sources reported its group chief executive Kalyan Krishnamurthy announcing at a Flipkart town hall meeting. The Walmart-owned business is also preparing to enter the payments business in India.

“Krishnamurthy has discussed with senior leaders that profitability is likely this year but there was no timeframe given,” an anonymous source present at the town hall meeting told ET Tech. “Even with the new fundraise in progress, he has mandated lower cash burn across businesses.”
 
Flipkart plans to launch its own offering on the Unified Payments Interface and is currently testing it with a closed group of users, the Economic Times reported. The business previously separated from group company PhonePe and having its own digital payments service will give it more control over its payments. 

No launch date for the UPI service has been announced as yet but the service is intended to go live soon. Sources told ET Tech that this could be as soon as early February. 
 
Flipkart executives have said for the past few years that the business will launch an initial public offering at some point. However, it is not on the cards for 2024, according to Krishnamurthy. The business is focusing on optimising its resources and is currently going through a restructuring process.