Amid potential merger talks with Flipkart, Snapdeal has raised over Rs. 113 crores from Nexus Ventures and founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal. The latest round of emergency funding comes at a time when Flipkart has signed a binding term-sheet to acquire Snapdeal and is scheduled to undertake commercial and financial diligence in the next few days.
NVP pumped in Rs 96.26 crore in the round, while Bahl and Bansal contributed Rs 8.45 crore each, according to regulatory filing with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Earlier in February, the struggling online retail firm laid off a total of 600 staff members as it continues the struggle to be profitable. There is no word about what Snapdeal plans to do with the raised funds. The Indian e-commerce market is fiercely competitive and is currently dominated by Amazon India and Flipkart. SoftBank has already written off over USD 1 billion on valuation of its investment in Snapdeal.
It remains to be seen how the latest round of emergency funding will Snapdeal compete with Amazon India and Flipkart.