Snapdeal, an India-headquartered e-commerce company that counts e-commerce group Alibaba as a backer, has raised $21m from Luxembourg-based entity Clouse as part of an ongoing funding drive, LiveMint reported yesterday.
Founded in 2010, Snapdeal operates an e-commerce marketplace that lists some 50 million products across more than 1,000 categories. It was the third largest e-commerce platform in India by gross sales as of July 2016, behind Amazon.com and Flipkart.
The Clouse investment was part of a round initiated when investors including media group Bennett Coleman & Co (BCC), Singapore-based investment vehicle Brother Fortune Apparel, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and venture capital advisory firm Iron Pillar agreed in February 2016 to invest $200m.
Snapdeal’s gross sales have reportedly halved from the end of 2015 and it is reportedly attempting to shave costs and save cash to guard against a wary funding environment. It recently shuttered Exclusively, the upmarket fashion retail platform it acquired in February 2015.
However, the company plans to spend up to $30m on advertising in the next 60 days as it aims to grab back some of the market in the Diwali holiday season.
The February round, secured at a $6.5bn to $7bn valuation, took Snapdeal’s total funding to about $1.7bn.
China-based Alibaba led a $500m round for Snapdeal in September 2015 that valued it at $4.8bn and included contract manufacturer Foxconn, telecom group Softbank, mobile software provider Myriad, Temasek, BlackRock and PremjiInvest.
Snapdeal’s past investors include Intel Capital, the corporate venturing subsidiary of Intel, e-commerce platform eBay, Ru-Net, Saama Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, Kalaari Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners.