Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart plans to make its initial public offering (IPO) debut in the fourth quarter of this year.

According to people familiar with the matter, US retail giant Walmart Inc has set up an internal IPO team for Flipkart and is leaning toward a traditional debut in the United States and the startup’s valuation could top $35 billion as it goes public, reports The Economic Times.

This comes at a time when online transactions in India have surged after the coronavirus pandemic, pushing millions of new customers from small towns and cities to switch to online platforms, boosting valuations of e-commerce firms.

Also, this would mean that the company's valuation would have more than doubled since Walmart Inc had bought 77 per cent stake in it for a price tag of $16 billion in 2018. Meanwhile, during its latest fundraising with Walmart Inc in July, the company had raised $1.2 billion at $24.9 billion valuation. With this, Walmart Inc's holding in the e-commerce giant had increased to 82.3 per cent.

“Flipkart’s IPO will be a large, exciting public offering and a very significant milestone for India’s startup ecosystem,” said Neha Singh, co-founder and chief executive officer of private market intelligence researcher Tracxn Technologies Pvt.

In India, a rush of startups are headed toward the public markets with at least 10 offerings in the queue.