Flipkart raises its biggest round at a lesser valuation and acquires eBay but is it enough to steer off Amazon?

Flipkart announced its largest fundraising round today and with $4.6 billion already in the kitty from investors like Tiger Global, Naspers Group, Accel Partners and DST Global among others.

The e-tailer mentioned that this capital was raised at a post-transaction valuation of $11.6 billion, a drop from $15.2 billion valuations in May 2015 when it had last raised funds.

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This funding round signals a victory for new Flipkart chief Kalyan Krishnamurthy, who has tried to turn around its fortunes since rejoining in June 2016. Now there is an Increased pressure on the CEO to deliver the much-awaited Flipkart initial public offering (IPO) in the coming future.

eBay, which is also a minority investor in Snapdeal, is investing $500 million in Flipkart in this deal, with the acquisition of eBay India by the behemoth. The value of the Indian unit isn't known but the viability of buying a C2C platform for the biggest B2C business in India points to experimentation on its platform which might not be wise with Amazon racing ahead in India.

eBay India will continue to operate separately as a unit of Flipkart much like retailers Myntra and Jabong and the mobile payments app PhonePe.

Flipkart and Amazon now serious contenders in India’s $15 billion online retail market which might even see the sale of Delhi-based Snapdeal to its biggest competitors if reports are to be believed.

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According to investors, this resurgence by Flipkart means that the battle of sales will be more closely fought but it doesn't necessarily mean that acquiring more companies will add to Bansal's kitty as they are far from profit.

" This deal reaffirms our resolve to hasten the transformation of commerce in India through technology,” Flipkart founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal said in a statement.

This hastening process still needs to be well-considered by the Bansals who are overlooking the entire ecosystem created by Flipkart.

Tencent which is a Chinese gaming company has previously invested in startups like Hike and Practo — is coming on board as a strategic investor.

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“This strategic partnership enables Tencent to participate in the exciting opportunities in e-commerce and payments in India. We look forward to helping Flipkart to deliver compelling experiences to users throughout India, and to contribute to the development of the internet ecosystem there,” said Martin Lau, Tencent President.

Tencent rival Alibaba with affiliate Ant Financial owns a huge stake in Paytm's e-commerce marketplace Paytm Mall and is debuting in India this year.

eBay said in a statement that Flipkart will acquire eBay’s buyers in India and they will remove the number of active buyers in India when the acquisition is completed. eBay had disclosed a total 167 million global active buyers in the fourth quarter of 2016.

This fund raise will spell out the fate of Indian e-commerce market even though with this fund-raise Flipkart has become less of an Indian company. Registered in Singapore and now boasting an array of foreign investors, the company is less 'Indian' than Amazon India which is an Indian registered company.