E-commerce

IPO filing reveals Snapdeal’s reality check after 2015 boom

Madhav Chanchani

Aditi Shrivastava

January 03, 2022 | 7 Min Read

At one point, the ecommerce platform was valued at $6.5 billion and had top backers from SoftBank to Alibaba. Its IPO papers reveal how deep in red the investors are and how tough the competition is on the business front

Circa February 2016: Snapdeal, aiming to topple Flipkart and become the country’s largest online commerce player, raised $200 million at a $6.5-billion valuation.

Two diverse investors led the round — Canadian fund Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and venture fund Iron Pillar’s special purpose vehicle, Brother Fortune, which pooled money from mostly Chinese family offices. This was Snapdeal’s last major external funding round.

December 2021: Snapdeal filed for an initial public offering, seeking to raise Rs 1,250 crore in primary capital. There is also a secondary share sale by investors such as SoftBank and Foxconn. Founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, however, are not selling any shares.

While reports in September 2021 had indicated that the company would seek a $2.5-billion valuation, recent chatter has pegged the IPO target valuation at $1.5-1.7 billion.

“The range Snapdeal is ok with is actually $1-1.5 billion,” said a person briefed on the matter.

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