Walmart is eyeing another acquisition in the retail space and is in talks with StoreKing, a Bengaluru-based tech company that connects Kirana stores in rural areas to brands and suppliers.

To begin with, Walmart is set to enter into a partnership with StoreKing, which could eventually lead to an acquisition, sources told CNBC-TV18.

Walmart's move to partner with StoreKing is mainly to help sell inventory from Walmart India, its wholesale business arm, to Kirana stores in the smaller towns and rural parts of the country. StoreKing connects over 40,000 Kiranas across ten states in rural areas to brands and wholesalers.

Started in 2012 by Sridhar Gundaiah and Govardhan Krishnappa, StoreKing saw revenues of Rs 288 crore in FY18, as per Tofler.

StoreKing enables Kirana store owners in rural parts with a tablet to allow their customers to browse through the inventory of its brand partners. Once the customer places an order on the app, the supplier then ships the product to the retail store, wherein the Kirana shop owner also makes a commission.

The startup had raised $16 million in 2016 from Axiata Group and $4 million earlier from Mangrove Capital Partners.

Walmart's big bet on Kiranas comes in the light of Reliance announcing it will launch into ecommerce and will leverage the Kirana stores.

Interestingly, StoreKing had tied up with Amazon three years ago, for distribution of the latter's wholesale products. It is unclear if StoreKing will continue with Amazon post the Walmart partnership.

Walmart and StoreKing are yet to respond to CNBC-TV18's queries.

Walmart acquired a 77 percent stake in Flipkart for $16 billion last year. Since then, it has also held talks with other companies in the retail space.

CNBC-TV18 reported last week that Walmart also held talks with Bengaluru-based grocery retail chain Namdhari's Fresh for an acquisition, which will happen through Flipkart.