Ecommerce marketplace Snapdeal has raised $500 million in funding led by Foxconn, Alibaba and existing investor Softbank, with participation from other existing investors Temasek, BlackRock, Myriad and PremjiInvest, reports VCCircle. Snapdeal will expand its geographical reach and enhance its services with the funding. It is unclear whether this is a fresh round of funding or a confirmation of the report we’d written on 3 August. We’ve written to Snapdeal and will update once we hear from them.
In October last year, Snapdeal had raised $627 million from Softbank, with the latter being the largest investor in Snapdeal at that point. As of now, Snapdeal claims to have over 150,000 sellers who sell over 15 million products to over 5,000 towns and cities in India.
eBay sells partial stake in Snapdeal
In related news, the 20 year old eBay has sold a partial stake in Snapdeal for an undisclosed amount to ‘effectively manage its global interests and invest in other strategic initiatives’. eBay will earn the amount it invested from the sale of its partial stake and the opportunity to earn more with its remaining stake, according to re/code. eBay will use part of the proceeds to invest in eBay India and other areas of its business. eBay claims to have over 30 million items hosted by 65,000 businesses on its India site.
HDFC Bank tie up for credit card
Earlier this month, India’s second largest private lender HDFC Bank tied up with Snapdeal to launch a co-branded credit card, aimed to encourage Snapdeal’s customers from tier 2 and 3 markets to adapt to digital payments. Snapdeal claimed that over 70% of its customers were from Tier II and Tier III cities but a majority of them opted for cash-on-delivery, with only a minuscule adopting digital payment methods.
Shopo marketplace
Last month, Snapdeal launched Shopo, a zero commission mobile marketplace targeted at small and medium businesses (SMBs), which will combine chat and commerce on smartphones. Snapdeal claims that it will not take any fees and allow SMBs to list their products in a single step. Sellers can list products like bakery and grocery items, toys, collectibles, fashion and utility products.
Snapdeal’s previous funding
Last year, Snapdeal raised $100 million from Temasek Holdings and others in May, $133.7 million from eBay and others in February, $50 million from existing investors in June 2013 and $52 million in 2011 in separate rounds of funding from Bessemer Ventures Partners, Indo-US Venture Partners and Nexus Venture Partners.
Snapdeal’s recent top level hires here.
Also read: Snapdeal’s Ashish Chandra on the regulatory challenges that ecommerce companies face in India
Image Credit: Flickr user martin
