Flipkart comes closer to Amazon’s backyard, opens office in Palo Alto

If Indian high corporates and e-commerce giants were busy hiring big names from the Bay Area lately, it looks like they have now begun looking abroad to set up shop. India’s largest e-commerce marketplace Flipkart today opened shop in the US. Chief Technology Officer Peeyush Ranjan has tweeted that Flipkart is now live in the Bay Area, with their new office opening in Palo Alto, California.

YourStory's queries to Flipkart on this regard were unanswered.

Snapdeal, Flipkart’s rival on the home turf, also opened data centres in the US in May to focus on big data and advanced analytics to provide perspective on their consumer initiatives. This move was also expected to help in reshaping their business strategy to optimise its operational efficiencies through data and analytics. Snapdeal had said that the move was in line with its “vision to on-board top global talent and build high-value solutions."

Flipkart’s current move could help them find more talent from the region, which probably has the best in the world. But this inevitably demands a change in work culture too. Flipkart’s last big hire from Silicon Valley was Punit Soni, who was Chief Product Officer for less than a year till he was reportedly made to leave in April. There were rumours that he had limited freedom in Flipkart, unlike his former job at Google in the Bay Area.

In fact, in March 2015, when Punit was hired, it was seen as an early sign of Flipkart opening an office in the US. Now, with strong positioning, Flipkart is in a favourable position to receive funding from American investors. There have been fluctuations in Flipkart’s valuation this year – with multiple parties devaluing it, which was followed by slight hikes.

Out of India’s other startup unicorns, InMobi set up shop in San Francisco in 2013, while the only food tech startup unicorn, Zomato, went to the US last year. India’s SaaS leader Freshdesk, data analytics startup SirionLabs and wifi solutions platform Mojo Networks are already present in the US. Data analytics unicorn Mu Sigma, founded in 2004 by Dhiraj Rajaram, is headquartered in Chicago. Chinese giants Baidu and Tencent are also present in San Francisco.