After investing nearly $ 700 million in Flipkart’s marketplace and its new healthcare vertical, the Indian e-commerce company’s Singapore-based parent entity has invested $116 million in its online fashion retail arm Myntra.

According to reports, the investment was done last month. This takes Flipkart’s investment in its various businesses in March to more than $ 800 million.

The company had invested in $ 553 million in Flipkart Marketplaces and $143 million in its new healthcare business. Flipkart also launched a separate app for the healthcare business, called Flipkart Health+, on April 6 as per reports.

The new investment comes as Myntra is facing new challenges, with Reliance's Ajio emerging as a major second player in the online fashion market. Beauty retailer Nykaa is also venturing into fashion, which Myntra has dominated for over a decade.

While Nykaa dominates the beauty and personal care industry, several companies, including India’s biggest conglomerates – Reliance Industries and Tata Group – are looking at building their own beauty and personal care platforms.

According to reports, Tata Group has launched multiple fashion platforms – Tata Cliq and Westside – on the company’s super app Tata Neu,which was launched on April 7.

Ashutosh Sharma, vice-president and research director, Forrester says, “the fashion category is a tough business; it requires significant investments in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, metaverse and virtual reality.”

As per reports Flipkart CEO, Kalyan Krishnamurthy on January 4th stated that, “Myntra had only scratched the surface of the online branded fashion space, and that Myntra will continue to run independently under the new management with its own strategy, targeting its customer segments, we are going to invest heavily in it and grow it disproportionately. The new team is very enthusiastic.”