Snapdeal Pvt., a leading online retailer in India, is considering an IPO that could raise $400 million, joining a growing list of startups looking to tap capital markets.
As an online marketplace, Snapdeal has grown to become one of the largest in India. Snapdeal was founded on 4 February 2010 as a daily deals platform and expanded in September 2011 to become an e-commerce company.
Co-founded by Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, Snapdeal offers over 60 million items in various categories including mobile phones & tablets, computers, office & gaming, electronics, home & living, fashion for men and women, sports, fitness, & outdoor activities, daily needs, motors & accessories, books, music, real estate and financial services.
Snapdeal, based in the New Delhi suburb of Gurgaon, used to be one of India’s top three e-commerce companies, along with Flipkart Online Services Pvt. and the Indian division of Amazon.com Inc. The company was founded in 2010 and offers more than 60 million products in 800 categories. It delivers to more than 6,000 cities and towns across the country.
Some of the top investors in Snapdeal include SoftBank, BlackRock, Temasek, Foxconn, Alibaba, eBay Inc., Premji Invest, Intel Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Mr. Ratan Tata, Clouse SA, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Kalaari Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, Cambrian Ventures, Iron Pillar, and Myriad Group.
SoftBank Group Corp. is one of its investors, and the company is in discussions with advisers about a possible listing in Mumbai that could value it at as much as $2.5 billion, people familiar with the matter said. A potential IPO could occur as soon as next year, according to two sources who asked not to be identified because the details of the deal are not public.
The talks have not yet concluded, and the firm might decide to drop the plan, according to the sources. Representatives for Snapdeal and SoftBank did not respond to requests for comment.
Snapdeal walked away from a potential merger with Flipkart four years ago, which would have united the two local e-commerce companies against Amazon. Since then, Flipkart sold a controlling stake to Walmart Inc. and is now preparing for its own IPO.
There have already been more IPOs in India in 2021 than there have been in the past three years. The list of upcoming IPOs includes insurance platform Policybazaar and e-commerce beauty startup Nykaa. Snapdeal hopes to replicate the positive results of rival companies like food delivery service Zomato and beauty retailer FSN E-Commerce Ventures, which owns Nykaa. Among Snapdeal’s largest shareholders is Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and SoftBank, which are not selling shares, the people said.
