Online marketplace Snapdeal has secured an investment of $500 million led by Alibaba Group, Foxconn and SoftBank. Existing investors Temasek, BlackRock, Myriad and Premji Invest also participated in this round.
“With global leaders like Alibaba, Foxconn and SoftBank, in addition to our other existing partners, supporting us, our efforts towards building India’s most impactful digital commerce ecosystem will be propelled further, enabling us to contribute towards creating a Digital India,” said Kunal Bahl, co-founder and chief executive officer of Snapdeal.
Snapdeal, founded in 2010, has over 150,000 sellers, more than 15 million products and a reach to 5,000-plus towns and cities across India.
So far, Snapdeal has partnered with several global marquee investors and individuals such as SoftBank, Alibaba, Foxconn, BlackRock, Temasek, eBay Inc, Premji Invest, Intel Capital, Sequoia Capital, Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata, among others.
Alibaba is a leading Chinese e-commerce firm, while Foxconn a Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturing firm and SoftBank, a leading Japanese telecom and internet major, with operations in broadband, telecom, technology services, finance, media and marketing.
Asserting that the new funding was an endorsement of its strategy to create life-changing experiences for small businesses and consumers, Bahl said with 150,000 sellers and a reach of 5,000 towns and cities across the country, the company became a fast-growing e-commerce player.
With about 5,000 employees across the country, Snapdeal offers online shopping experience to millions of buyers for sourcing 15 million products in 500 categories.
Co-founded in 2010 by Bahl and Kunal Bansal, the five-year-old company raised a total of $1billion (Rs.6,538 crore) in previous eight rounds of funding, including $627 million in October 2014, with Softbank as lead investor in H round.
The company, however, did not disclose how much Tata Sons chairman emeritus Ratan Tata invested in ‘G’ round in August 2014.
Raising $2 million in first or A round from Indo-US Venture Partners in September 2009, the New Delhi-based start-up got $10 million from Nexus Venture Partners in B round in January 2011, $45 million from Bessemer Venture Partners in C round in July 2011, $133.77 million from eBay in E round in February 2014, $105 million from Temasek, Blackrock, Myriad, Tybourne and Premji Invest in F round in May 2014.
The company also did not disclose how much it raised in fourth, or D round from e-Bay, the US-based leading e-commerce player, in April 2013.
Snapdeal on April 8 acquired mobile transactions platform FreeCharge in a cash-cum-stock deal for an estimated $400 million.
IANS
