Snapdeal has raised a whopping $627 mn in funding from Japan SoftBank. The news follows a report that came in two weeks back. Snapdeal plans to use this capital to ramp up technology and supply chain management.
The e-commerce player will also use the raised funding to expand its chain of fulfillment centres and make acquisitions in the coming few months, specifically in the area of mobile technology. SoftBank Group aims to further strengthen its presence in India and leverage synergies with its network of Internet companies around the world through this strategic investment and partnership with Snapdeal.
“Our entire team at Snapdeal is thrilled and honoured to have SoftBank as a strategic partner. With the support of Son-san and Nikesh [Nikesh Arora, Vice Chairman of SoftBank], we are confident we will further strengthen our promise to consumers and create life changing experiences for 1 million small businesses in India.”
said Kunal Bahl, Co-founder and CEO of Snapdeal.
Snapdeal has raised close to $ 1 billion during this calendar year. Founded in 2010, Snapdeal had received $133.7 million in February from investors led by Chinese e-commerce company eBay and $105 million in May from a group of investors, including IT billionaire Azim Premji’s family office Premji Invest. It has more than 25 million registered users and more than 50,000 business sellers.
“We believe India is at a turning point in its development and have confidence that India will grow strongly over the next decade. As part of this belief, we intend to deploy significant capital in India over the next few years to support development of the market.”
said Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive of SoftBank Corp.
Both deals were negotiated under newly appointed SoftBank Vice chairman and SIMI chief executive Nikesh Arora, reflecting the company’s recent aggressive overseas expansion. Arora will be joining both Snapdeal and ANI’s boards as part of the investment, SoftBank said.
“India has the third-largest internet user base in the world, but a relatively small online market currently. This situation means India has, with better, faster and cheaper Internet access, a big growth potential,”
said Nikesh Arora in a statement.
The move comes at a time when Flipkart recently announced it was raising $1 billion and Amazon said it would invest $2 billion in India.
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