India’s leading online retail platform, Snapdeal, will get $500 million from investors including China’s Alibaba Group, Japan’s SoftBank and Taiwan’s devicemaker, Foxconn, according to reports.
Snapdeal’s valuation following the latest deal is unknown. Some months ago, the online retailer was in talks with Alibaba for a rumored valuation of $5 billion but those talks fell through. A Snapdeal spokesperson declined comment on media reports.
The reported Snapdeal investment will represent Chinese retail giant Alibaba’s first direct investment into India’s e-commerce sector. Alibaba has earlier invested in digital payments firm, Paytm, through its affiliate, Ant Financial.
India’s e-commerce segment is red-hot as it is considered the last big unconquered expanse. Booming smartphone usage and growing mobile internet access in a young country with 1.27 billion people are seen as conducive to fast-paced growth of e-commerce.
Snapdeal’s founder Kunal Bahl has stated that India’s e-commerce industry could grow eight-folds to $250 billion within a decade, outpacing China.
Investors are outdoing each other in plowing vast amounts of capital into India’s leading online retailers. Snapdeal’s news comes even as its rival, India’s largest online retailer, Flipkart concluding a $700 million round from investors including Tiger Global. Meanwhile, the Indian unit of Amazon is reported to receive a $5 billion investment from the parent.
Snapdeal had earlier raised over $1 billion from investors including BlackRock and eBay. SoftBank poured $627 million into the online retail platform last year. Snapdeal reported a 301% jump in GMV (gross merchandise volume), or value of goods sold on its site, for the year ending in March 2015. Its GMV in March was reported to be $2 billion.
An employee packages shopping at a Snapdeal warehouse in the suburbs of New Delhi (Image: Snapdeal)
No comments:
Post a Comment