Snapdeal

Snapdeal

Type of site	Private
Founded	2010[1]
Headquarters	New Delhi, India
Area served	India
Founder(s)	Kunal Bahl, Rohit Bansal
Industry	Internet
Services	E-Commerce (Internet Shopping)
Employees	9000
Parent	Jasper Infotech
Website	www.snapdeal.com

Snapdeal is an B2C marketplace, based in New Delhi, India. The company was started by Kunal Bahl, a Wharton graduate as part of the dual degree M&T Engineering and Business program at Penn, and Rohit Bansal, an alumnus of IIT Delhi in February 2010. Snapdeal currently has 275,000 sellers, over 30 million products and a reach of 6,000 towns and cities across the country^[2] Investors in the company include SoftBank Corp, Ru-Net Holdings, Tybourne Capital, PremjiInvest, Alibaba Group, Temasek Holdings, Bessemer Venture Partners, IndoUS Ventures, Kalaari Capital, Saama Capital, Foxconn Technology Group, Blackrock, eBay, Nexus Ventures, Intel Capital, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, Singapore-based investment entity Brother Fortune Apparel and Ratan Tata.^[3] When Snapdeal acquired FreeCharge^[4] in an equity deal, investors Sequoia Capital India, Valiant Capital, Sofina, Ru-Net Holdings, and Tybourne Capital also became shareholders in Snapdeal.

History

Snapdeal was started on 4 February 2010 as a daily deals platform, but expanded in September 2011 to become an online marketplace.^[5] Snapdeal has grown to become one of the largest online marketplace in India^[6] offering an assortment of 10 million products across diverse categories from over 100,000 sellers, shipping to more than 5,000^[7] towns and cities in India. In March 2015, Snapdeal brought actor Aamir Khan for the promotion of its website in India.^[8]

Funding

Snapdeal has received 7 rounds of funding:

• Round 1: In January 2011, Snapdeal received a funding of $12 million from Nexus Venture Partners and Indo-US Venture Partners.
• Round 2: In July 2011, the company raised a further $45 million from Bessemer Venture Partners, along with existing investors Nexus Venture Partners and Indo-US Venture Partners.
• Round 3: Snapdeal then raised a 3rd round of funding worth $50 million from eBay and received participation from existing investors – i.e. Bessemer Venture Partners, Nexus Venture and IndoUS Venture Partners.^[9]
• Round 4: Snapdeal received its 4th round of funding of $133 million on Feb-2014. The 4th round of funding was led by eBay with all the current institutional investors, including Kalaari Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Intel Capital and Saama Capital all participating.^[10]
• Round 5: Snapdeal received its 5th round of funding of $105 million in May-2014. The 5th round included investments by Blackrock, Temasek Holdings, PremjiInvest and others.^[11] The round valued Snapdeal at $1,000,000,000.^[12]
• Round 6: Snapdeal received its 6th round of funding in Oct-2014 from Softbank with investments worth $647 million in fresh capital.This makes SoftBank the largest investor in Snapdeal.^[13]
• Round 7: Snapdeal received its 7th round of funding in Aug-2015 from Alibaba Group, Foxconn and SoftBank with investments worth $500 million in fresh capital.^[14]
• Round 11:One of the world's largest pension funds, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, and Singapore-based investment entity Brother Fortune Apparel have led the 11th round of funding in online marketplace player Snapdeal. The latest investment is $200 million (Rs 1,367.6 crore) in Jasper Infotech-owned company.

Acquisitions

• In 2 June 2011, Snapdeal acquired Bengaluru-based group buying site, Grabbon.com.^[15]
• In April 2012, Snapdeal acquired esportsbuy.com, an online sports goods retailer based out of Delhi.^[16][17]
• In May 2013, Snapdeal acquired Shopo.in, an online marketplace for Indian handicraft products.^[18]
• In April 2014, Snapdeal acquired fashion products discovery site, Doozton.com.^[19]
• In December 2014, Snapdeal acquired gifting recommendation site, Wishpicker.com.^[20]
• In January 2015, Snapdeal acquired a stake in product comparison website Smartprix.com.^[21]
• In February 2015, Snapdeal acquired luxury fashion products discovery site, Exclusively.in.^[22]
• In March 2015, Snapdeal acquired 20% stake in logistics service company Gojavas.com.It currently owns a 50% stake in GoJavas valued at $35 million.^[23]
• In March 2015, Snapdeal acquired ecommerce management software and fulfillment solution provider, Unicommerce.com .^[24]
• In March 2015, Snapdeal entered into the financial services marketplace by acquiring a majority stake of RupeePower which provides a digital platform for financial products to customers. Tejasvi Mohanram, the founder of RupeePower, would continue to be the MD & CEO of the company.^[25][26][27]

• In April 2015, Snapdeal acquired mobile-payments company FreeCharge.com.^[28]
• In September 2015, Snapdeal acquired Reduce Data, a programmatic display advertising platform.^[29]

Merger

In August 2016, rumours surfaced through a VCCircle exclusive article that Snapdeal was considering possibilities of mergers with its bigger rivals Flipkart and Amazon. However, no confirmation has yet been given with Snapdeal vehemently denying the claims.^[30]

Business results

In the year 2012-13, Snapdeal had said that it expected revenues of about ₹600 crore (US$89 million). Betting big on the growth of mobile commerce, Kunal Bahl, the CEO, said at the time that 15-20 per cent of the sales on Snapdeal came through m-commerce. Snapdeal.com expected the total sale of products traded on its platform to cross ₹2,000 crore (US$300 million) in the fiscal year 2013-14 helped by its robust growth in the past two years and the growing popularity of e-commerce in India.^[31] In June 2014, Snapdeal announced that it had achieved the milestone of 1000 sellers on its platform getting sales of over Rs 1 crore.^[32]

Labour issues

Snapdeal employees approached the Labour Department in February 2016, claiming that the company was firing them and had forced 600 employees to resign in the last one year.^[33]

After protests from Snapdeal employees, Delhi Government ordered the Labour Department to probe the allegations.^[34]

Awards and recognition

• eRetailer of the Year & Best Advertising campaign of the year - Indian eRetail awards 2012 organized by Franchise India in February 2012.^[35]
• Winner of Red Herring Asia Awards 2011.^[36]
• E-commerce site of the year at WAT awards that took place in Jan 2012, Mumbai.^[37]
• Voted amongst the Buziest brands of India in afaqs's annual buzz-making poll.^[38]

Controversy

• Snapdeal faces flak for Aamir Khan's statement^[39]
• Snapdeal faces controversy over buying fake tweets^[40]
• Man orders mobile phones, gets stones in package^[41]
• Snapdeal Raises $200M in Funding at a Valuation of Over $6.5B^[42]

Trivia

• In June 2011, Shiv Nagar, a village located in Muzaffarnagar district in Uttar Pradesh, India, became Snapdeal.com Nagar (nagar meaning town in Hindi), after Snapdeal had installed 15 hand pumps for drinking water. The villagers voted to name their hamlet after Snapdeal to express their gratitude.^[43][44]

References

1. Chakraborty, Alokananda (18 July 2014). "Lunch with BS: Sachin Bansal". Business Standard Ltd. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
2. Gooptu, Biswarup (28 February 2014). "Snapdeal co-founder Kunal Bahl: A rising star of India's e-commerce space". The Economic Times. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
3. "Venture Backed Startups turn Acquisitive". Venture Intelligence.
4. "Snapdeal buys Freecharge for $400m - The Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 2015-11-19.
5. Agrawal, Shrija; Rai, Anand. "We should do a billion dollar in gross merchandise value by 2015: Snapdeal's Shyam Bahl". techcircle.vccircle.com/. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
6. Bhattacharjee, Nivedita; PM, Indulal. "Japan's SoftBank kicks off $10 billion India online spree, buys stake in Snapdeal". Reuters. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
7. "JOSIC - Digital Intelligence".
8. "Aamir Khan roped in as brand ambassador for Snapdeal". India Today. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
9. "Exclusive: Snapdeal raises $50 million from eBay and existing investors". 1 April 2013.
10. "eBay increases stake in Snapdeal, invests $134 million". The Times Of India. 27 February 2014.
11. "Snapdeal raises $100M in fresh funding from BlackRock, Temasek, PremjiInvest, others".
12. PrivCo (May 2014). "SnapDeal Receives Venture Capital Investment From Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd., BlackRock Kelso Capital, Myriad Group AG, And Others.".
13. "SoftBank becomes largest investor in Snapdeal", Affairscloud" , 28 October 2014.
14. "Snapdeal secures USD 500 Million in an investment round led by Alibaba, Foxconn and SoftBank to power its digital commerce ecosystem - Snapdeal Blog". 18 August 2015.
15. 29 June 2010 (29 June 2010). "Jasper announces acquisition of Grabbon". The Financial Express.
16. 4 April 2012 (4 April 2012). "Snapdeal acquires Esportsbuy.com". Economic Times.
17. 4 April 2012 (4 April 2012). "Snapdeal buys Esportsbuy.com". The Hindu Business Line.
18. 1 June 2013 (1 June 2013). "Snapdeal acquires Shopo.in". Times of India.
19. 11 December 2014 (11 December 2014). "Snapdeal acquires Doozton.com". Economic Times.
20. 11 December 2014 (11 December 2014). "Snapdeal acquires Wishpicker.com". Economic Times.
21. "Snapdeal buys stake in product comparison site Smartprix.com". VC Circle. Retrieved 2014-01-06.
22. ", Business-standard", 18 February 2015.
23. "Snapdeal acquired 20% stake in Gojavas.com". LiveMint. Retrieved 2015-03-18.
24. "Snapdeal buys e-commerce management firm Unicommerce". LiveMint. Retrieved 2015-03-31.
25. "Snapdeal acquires majority stake of RupeePower". articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com. Retrieved 2015-04-01.
26. "Snapdeal acquires majority stake of RupeePower". MoneyControl. Retrieved 2015-03-31.
27. "Snapdeal acquires majority stake of RupeePower". The Times Of India. Retrieved 2015-03-31.
28. "India's Snapdeal Buys FreeCharge". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2015-04-08.
29. "Snapdeal acquires Silicon Valley startup Reduce Data - The Economic Times". Retrieved 2015-09-02.
30. "Snapdeal explores merger talks with Flipkart, Amazon". VCCircle.
31. "Snapdeal expects its online sales to cross Rs 2,000 cr in FY14". The Times Of India. 31 March 2013.
32. "Snapdeal crosses milestone of 1,000 sellers getting sales of over Rs 1 crore". IndianWeb2. 16 June 2014.
33. "Protesting Snapdeal employees approach labour department - The Economic Times". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2016-02-28.
34. "Snapdeal is Indirectly Firing 200 Employees? Ugly Truths Emerge..". Trak.in - Indian Business of Tech, Mobile & Startups. Retrieved 2016-02-28.
35. Saturday, 25 February 2012 (25 February 2012). "Snapdeal.com awarded eRetailer of the year; Also wins Best Advertising campaign of the year award". India PR Wire.
36. "2011 RED HERRING TOP 100 ASIA". RED HERRING.
37. 21 January 2012 (21 January 2012). "And The Winners Of WAT Awards 2012 Are……Congratulations To All!". WAT Blog.com.
38. 27 February 2012 (27 February 2012). "7th Edition of India's Buzziest Brands". Afaqs.
39. http://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/e-commerce-marketplace-snapdeal-faces-flak-over-aamir-khans-statement-on-intolerance-115112400891_1.html
40. "SHAME! Snapdeal BUYS FAKE Tweets to Trend #SnapdealforIndia". www.satyavijayi.com.
41. "Snapdeal does it again: Man orders mobile phones, gets stones in package". www.news18.com.
42. "Snapdeal Raises $200M in Funding at a Valuation of Over $6.5B". www.iamwire.com.
43. "Indian village named for a god now honors SnapDeal.com". www.cnn.com. Cable News Network. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
44. "Snapdeal adopts village in Uttar Pradesh and residents renames village to Snapdeal.com". economictimes.indiatimes.com. Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. Retrieved 24 October 2014.

External links

• Official website