Looks like Snapdeal will be one of the first major online companies to take advantage of recent changes made in the policy by Indian Government. In December, they had approved listing of Indian companies which are not listed in Indian stock exchange to list themselves in stock exchanges of other countries.
According to Business Line, Snapdeal’s CEO Kunal Bahl has mentioned that they are seriously looking at listing on a US bourse directly. No specific timeline was mentioned, however, they are looking at going public in next couple of years.
Snapdeal will have sales of around 500 million in this financial year, and it is expected to double to USD 1 billion in FY 2014-15.
Snapdeal Funding
The report also mentioned that Snapdeal is looking to raise USD 150 million in additional funding on top of USD 102 million that they have raised till date. Here are details of funding they have received previously.
- 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.
There have rumours previously as well in regards to their fourth round of funding – In mid October ToI had said that they will be raising $200 million with a valuation of $750 million, but nothing has been announced or confirmed by Snapdeal themselves as yet.
Given the burn rate that top Indian e-commerce platforms are experiencing, Snapdeal will definitely need to raise a big round in excess of $100 million if not more.
Flipkart, India’s leading ecommerce platform, created a huge flutter in 2013 by raising $360 million in 2013 alone.
If that is any indication, the rumours of Snapdeal raising huge rounds of $150 to $200 million are not sounding too far fetched.
I strongly beleived snapdeal will be the next Alibaba.
I am very much interested to see snapdeal get on to us stock exchange.I want to see you keep me posted of how snapdeal going.