HomeShop18, which claims to be the only company in the e-commerce space in India to have FDI approval, has raised $14 million in funding from its existing investors: Korean home shopping major GS Home Shopping (GS) will invest $11 million, wile OCP Asia and Network18 will invest the rest. Keep in mind that this is the second round of fund raising this year from HomeShop18, after it had raised $30 million from OCP Asia and Network18 in April, a round in which GS Home Shopping had not participated. The transaction values HomeShop18 at $360 Million, while it's competitor Flipkart, which raised $160 million recently, as a part of a $360 million round, was valued at $1.02 billion by Naspers in August 2012, and now, reportedly much higher. Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon are online marketplaces, where vendors sell products. What's interesting is that post this investment, Network18, which incubated Homeshop18, will remain the majority shareholder at 51%. The company had also raised investment from SAIF Partners, who have apparently not participated in this round. There have been reports about Homeshop18's IPO plans, but its CEO Sundeep Malhotra, had denied having any such plans to us last year. HomeShop18 claims to have a customer base of 7.5 million users, and a portfolio of over 12 million SKUs, and a logistical reach of 3,000 locations across India. In May, in a conversation with MediaNama, Homeshop18 CEO and founder Sundeep Malhotra had told MediaNama that the money then had been raised for growing the…
