SoftBank-backed Snapdeal weighs USD400 million IPO
The company, which counts SoftBank Group Corporation among its investors, is speaking with advisers about a potential listing in Mumbai that could value it at as much as USD 2.5 billion, the people said
Snapdeal Pvt an Indian e-commerce retailer is considering an initial public offering that could raise about USD 400 million, joining a growing list of startups preparing to tap capital markets as the nation’s digital economy booms. The company, which counts SoftBank Group Corporation among its investors, is speaking with advisers about a potential listing in Mumbai that could value it at as much as USD 2.5 billion, the people said. They stated that an IPO could occur next year, asking not to be identified because the details aren’t public.
Discussions are still early, and the people said that the firm could decide not to proceed with the plan. Representatives for Snapdeal and SoftBank declined to comment. Snapdeal, based in the New Delhi suburb of Gurgaon, was once one of the country’s top three e-commerce firms along with Flipkart Online Services Pvt. and the Indian unit of Amazon.com Inc. Founded in 2010, it offers more than 60 million products across 800 categories on its platform and delivers to more than 6,000 cities and towns across the country, according to its website.
Four years ago, Snapdeal walked away from a potential merger with Flipkart, which would have united the two local-e-commerce companies against Amazon. Since then, Flipkart has sold a controlling stake to Walmart Inc. and is progressing towards its IPO. The amount raised via IPOs in India in 2021 has already surpassed the total gathered in the past three years. The pipeline for the rest of the year includes online insurance platform Policybazaar, e-commerce beauty startup Nykaa, and payments service provider Paytm.
