Indian e-commerce platform SnapDeal plans to IPO next year to raise $165 million

According to foreign media reports, Indian e-commerce platform SnapDeal has officially submitted its application for listing and plans to conduct an IPO in India next year.

SnapDeal plans to issue 12.5 billion rupees (about $165 million) in new shares , according to the prospectus . In addition, existing shareholders, including SoftBank, plan to sell up to 30.77 million secondary shares.

It is understood that SnapDeal was founded in 2010. It was originally just a discount website, and then developed into a complete e-commerce portal. Wikipedia shows that more than 500,000 sellers sell products on the Snapdeal platform, with fashion, home and daily necessities accounting for the majority. Buyers from more than 3,700 towns in India (accounting for 92% of the total number of towns in India) shop on Snapdeal. The prospectus shows that the current monthly active users are 40.15 million.

Snapdeal has previously received multiple rounds of financing, with a total financing amount of more than approximately US$2 billion. Investors include SoftBank, Temasek Holdings, BlackRock, Foxconn, Alibaba, etc.

Even so, the company has lagged as deep-pocketed Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart have invested heavily to grab market share in India.

As the company struggled, Snapdeal shifted its business model to focus on the "Bharat" segment, the non-English-speaking, non-affluent, non-urban and non-tech-savvy Indian population, while Amazon and Flipkart tended to cater to buyers in big cities, selling high-priced goods such as premium smartphones and high-priced electronics.

Snapdeal sells desk mats, beard care oil, wool blankets, etc., all for less than $5. It is reported that more than nine-tenths of the 60 million products on the platform are priced below $13.

During the recent holiday sales, sales in the fashion category increased 254%, kitchen items increased 101%, and beauty items increased 93%, according to a release from the company in early November.

Snapdeal's revenue fell 44% to $60 million in the year to March 2021, but its losses more than halved to $16 million. In the six months to September 2021, Snapdeal had revenue of about $33.47 million. The company reported an 82% increase in net merchandise value (a measure of sales) to $49.48 million in the second quarter of this year from the fourth quarter of last year.

Indian e-commerce

IPO