Kabir Misra, managing partner of SoftBank Capital, a corporate venturing subsidiary of telecommunications group SoftBank, has left Indian e-commerce marketplace Snapdeal’s board of directors, the Business Standard has reported.
SoftBank first invested in Snapdeal as part of a $500m funding round in 2015, and held a 33% stake and two of the company’s board seats as of April 2017, by which time it had provided $900m of the $1.7bn in venture capital it had raised.
The corporate attempted to leverage a merger between Snapdeal and chief rival Flipkart at that time, by withdrawing $150m to $200m in debt financing according to the Economic Times. Misra, who had taken his seat in March the same year, reportedly played a big part in the talks.
However, although it went close, Snapdeal’s founders turned down an offer of up to $950m from Flipkart in July, and SoftBank subsequently made a significant investment in the latter company instead.
Lydia Jett, the other SoftBank representative to have joined Snapdeal’s board last March, stepped down in December and was replaced by Saurabh Jalan, an investment professional at SoftBank. Jalan will continue in his position, according to the Standard.