Yet another e-commerce site in India has funding, and the battle for the online shopper in India is well and truly on: They latest in the fray is LetsBuy.com, which has raised $6 million from Helion Venture Partners, Accel Partners and Tiger Global. LetsBuy.com, launched in July 2009, retails consumer electronics, communications and computer goods, and says that it has a national footprint. According to a statement from the company, LetsBuy.com maintains complete control of the product-delivery logistics, much like Flipkart.com. Many e-commerce businesses in India tend to be marketplaces. Also worth noting here is that, in India, foreign investment is not allowed in multi-brand retail ventures, so it is unlikely that funding could have been raised in the entity that directly bills the customer. Competing with LetsBuy would be businesses like Flipkart.com, which itself is funded by Accel Partners and Tiger Global; Nexus Venture Partners funded Yebhi.com (previously BigShoeBazaar.com), Angel Investor backed BuyThePrice, unfunded-but-looking-for-funds Infibeam.com, Future Group and KPCB-Sherpalo backed FutureBazaar.com, as well as incumbents like IndiaPlaza, Rediff Shopping, Sify Mall, Indiatimes Shopping*. Apart from this, there are several daily deals, couponing and limited sales ventures like India Today and Axel Springer backed BagItToday, Accel Partners and Helion Venture Partners backed Exclusively.in, Indo US Venture backed Jasper / SnapDeal, Sequoia Capital backed FashionAndYou.com, Battery Ventures backed Taggle, Angel investor backed MyDala. Interesting to note the number of e-commerce investments that have been made by Accel Partners: hedging their bets?
