Ecommerce site Snapdeal.com is looking at raising $150-200 million funds to ensure healthy competition with Flipkart.com.
Times of India today reported that Snapdeal, founded by Wharton alumnus Kunal Bahl and IIT-Delhi graduate Rohit Bansal in 2010, is in talks with eBay, Japanese internet major SoftBank and a clutch of private equity investors.
Last week, Flipkart said it raised $360 million. The online marketplace aims to clock a billion dollars in annual gross merchandise volume by 2015.
eBay is looking at increasing its stake in Snapdeal, which has reported around Rs 2,500 crore in annual revenue, from the present 10 percent. eBay’s last round of funding had valued Snapdeal at about $200 million but a deal for a larger stake now could see its valuation go up to $750 million.
Earlier this year, Snapdeal raised $50 million from eBay and existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners and Nexus Ventures. Other investors in the company include Intel Capital, Russian venture fund ru-Net and Saama Capital.
One of the more successful e-commerce ventures in India at present with Snapdeal requires to raise more cash to keep growth intact even as its main rival
Besides eBay, South African internet company Naspers and Amazon have aggressive plans to expand their India footprint and tap India’s e-commerce market which is expected to touch $8.8 billion by 2016, according to Forrester.
Naspers is the second largest shareholder in Flipkart. It recently acquired online bus ticketing firm redBus. It also has a joint venture with China’s Tencent – the Ibibo Group.
