After much speculation, Snapdeal has finally received $500m of investment from international players, including Alibaba, SoftBank and Foxconn.
In March, Payment Eye reported that Alibaba were on the verge of investing half a billion into Snapdeal, making it Alibaba’s first investment into an Indian company. The deal failed to materialise, with reports suggesting that Snapdeal wanted an amount close to $1bn.
With a deal seemingly miles away, re/code reported at the beginning of August that negotiations had resumed, with previous investor SoftBank joining in with negotiations.
In 2014, SoftBank invested $627m into Snapdeal, allowing it to compete with the likes of Amazon India and Flipkart.
According to Snapdeal, existing investors Temasek, BlackRock, Myriad and Premji Invest have also participated in the funding round.
Despite now being valued at $2.5bn by US research company CB Insight, eBay announced that it was selling its share of the company to fund its own expansion into India.
‘‘We see this milestone as a significant endorsement of Snapdeal’s strategy and commitment to creating life changing experiences for millions of small businesses and consumers in India,’’ commented Kunal Bahl co-founder and CEO, Snapdeal.
‘‘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.’’
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