Snapdeal (Jasper Infotech Ltd) is an Indian online marketplace operating an e‑commerce platform. The company has struggled against Flipkart and Amazon India and has been engaged in talks to sell itself to Flipkart amid a boardroom battle involving major investors and its co‑founders. SoftBank, Snapdeal’s largest investor, has pushed for a sale while Nexus, Kalaari Capital and co‑founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal were initially opposed. The company received emergency financing of Rs113 crore from existing investor Nexus Venture Partners and the co‑founders. Documents show Nexus was issued shares worth Rs96.26 crore and founders Bahl and Bansal received shares worth Rs8.45 crore each; one person said the issuance is connected to Snapdeal’s 2015 acquisition of Unicommerce, where those parties held stakes, though Mint couldn’t verify this. Mint reported on April 28 that Snapdeal had cash reserves left for less than four months. The company is based in Bengaluru. Snapdeal is a six-year-old Indian e-commerce marketplace that lists over 30 million products from about 275,000 sellers and reaches more than 6,000 towns and cities. The company says it is building a reliable, frictionless commerce ecosystem and is making targeted investments in internal and external capabilities to improve buyer and seller experience. To bolster its payments and consumer reach, Snapdeal acquired FreeCharge for a reported $450 million. Snapdeal is generally seen as second to Flipkart with Amazon close behind, and it has been mentioned among firms tipped to pursue an IPO. Financially, Snapdeal has raised roughly $1.8 billion to date and recently secured a $200 million investment led by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan; no valuation was attached to the new raise. Six months earlier it received $500 million from Alibaba, SoftBank and Foxconn. Snapdeal operates a large Indian e-commerce marketplace competing with Flipkart and Amazon India. The company holds roughly a 32% share of India’s $6.3 billion e-commerce market (Flipkart 44%, Amazon India 15%, per Morgan Stanley figures reported). Snapdeal has expanded via acquisitions such as FreeCharge, which its CEO says makes its revenue position "neck and neck" with Flipkart. The company is investing heavily in logistics and plans to spend $150 million to $200 million expanding its delivery operations over the next year. Snapdeal faces a fierce, costly battle for market leadership and has attracted major strategic investors as part of that effort. Snapdeal operates a third-party retail marketplace in India, aggregating small businesses and enabling them to sell nationally via its platform. The company reports about 50,000 sellers and 25 million registered users, with annual gross merchandise value above $2 billion and GMV growth of over 600% in the prior 12 months. Mobile has become dominant for the business, rising from 5% to roughly 65% of sales in about 15 months. Snapdeal has built physical seller centers (about 40) to help retailers list and consign inventory, and roughly half of its sellers use a mobile app to manage stores. The company plans to hire 500 additional engineers and says any near-term acquisitions will focus on technology and expanding its payments platform. Management says it will remain focused on the Indian market and on operating as a marketplace rather than selling its own inventory. Snapdeal operates a B2C marketplace with a zero-inventory model, hosting roughly 4 million products and serving about 20 million registered users. The company positions itself as a platform for 50,000+ small businesses and brands in India and reached over $1 billion in sales after 2.5 years. Management is scaling headcount—the company has 1,300 employees and a remit to double that by year-end while adding some 250 engineers—and is recruiting engineering talent from the U.S. Snapdeal is expanding its product mix beyond physical goods, striking a deal with Tata Value Homes to sell about 1,000 properties across Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Chennai. The company has raised significant capital this year (over $233 million prior to the new investment) to support growth and possible bolt-on acquisitions focused on technology.

Total raised

$1.7B

Funding rounds

10

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

May 2017