$1B is a lot of money in the US too, even for a company's valuation.

But to raise $1B is, well, astronomical.

But then it deals with physical goods; lots of inventory, physical ops, street-level marketing. Is $1B really high for such a company?

Yes, very high. Especially if the sales numbers thrown around in this thread are accurate (eg $500m to $1b in sales).

Retail companies historically get relatively low valuations (particularly compared to your typical tech company), in part because the margins tend to be very mediocre in retail.

A software company would typically have margins 5 to 10 times greater than most retail companies. Amazon has been an anomaly in this regard, while they have the terrible margins, they have been rewarded with a massive valuation.

India does have 1.2+ billion people! That must be part of the justification, surely.

India is a huge opportunity, true. But nearly 30% of Indians live on less than $2/day. I do not believe these are part of that equation.

So 840M that live on more than $2 a day, then. That's around the combined population of the US and Europe.

The median per capita income in India is around $650. That places them around #100 in the world in that regard.

The bottom billion people in India have less disposable income than the five million people living in Norway.

You would also need to put into consideration cost of living. $650 would go a long way in India.

What about the top 200 million?

Much like China, the top 100 or 200 million can be a very lucrative consumer market, absolutely.

You are thinking short term.

I recognize India's potential, but my answer was about the near term indeed, a 5 to 10 year window. I personally wouldn't value a company further out than that.

GDP (USD)...population...per-capita GDP

US.......15.68T......313M.....$49,965

UK.........2.44T.......63M.....$38,514

China.....8.23T...1,351M.......$6,091

Nigeria....262b......168M......$1,555

India......1.82T...1,237M......$1,489

https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&...!

They'd already raised over 800M before this round.

Flipkart is NOT a profit making company as of today.