Snapdeal gets Rs 113 cr from Nexus, founders

Online retailer Snapdeal, which is likely to be merged with Flipkart, on Monday said that it has received a fund infusion of Rs 113.3 crore (about $17 million) from existing investor Nexus Venture Partners and co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal.

In a Registrar of Companies filing, the company declared that Snapdeal CEO Bahl and COO Bansal were allotted 1,300 Series J preference shares and Nexus was allotted 14, 810 preference shares. While Nexus invested Rs 96.26 crore, Bahl and Bansal contributed Rs 8.45 crore each.

The investment comes at a time Snapdeal’s biggest investor SoftBank is leading from the front to merge the company with Flipkart. The Japanese investor expects the merger will change the ecommerce landscape in the country and help in its fight against the US rival Amazon.

Snapdeal didn’t respond to an email query from DH on the development.

Nexus Ventures’ total investment in Snapdeal now reaches Rs 306 crore. Nexus first invested in Snapdeal in January 2011 during its Series B round via its Nexus India Direct Investments II fund. In total, Snapdeal has raised around $1.65 billion from about two dozen investors, including SoftBank and Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba.

Besides Taiwanese contract electronics manufacturer Foxconn and global online marketplace eBay, Snapdeal investors include venture capital firms such as Intel Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners and Kalaari Capital, among others.

According to an analyst, the move of Nexus and Snapdeal founders to again fund the company is surprising.

“Softbank recently completed the buyback of shares of Kalaari Capital and the Snapdeal founders, leading to 47.5% shareholding in the ecommerce marketplace. How they are planning to shape up the merger with the Flipkart is now uncertain,” he said.

The Japanese investor SoftBank has been going ahead with the proposed merger of Snapdeal with Flipkart and recently managed to convince earlier investors like Nexus and Kalaari Capital. Last February, Flipkart offered $1 billion in stock to buy Snapdeal, excluding its payment arm Freecharge and in this month the company also signed a term-sheet for buying out.

Flipkart offering to Snapdeal is really less than its peak valuation of $6.5 billion in February 2016 when it raised $50 million from investors. This will also affect the commitment made by the company founders plan to offer $30 million (Rs 193 Cr) bonanza to its staff after the deal with Flipkart.

In a related development, a group of 45 unnamed ex-employees of Snapdeal have sought an explanation from the company on the value of their employee stock option plan (ESOPs) after the merger.