Ecommerce Battle Intensifies: Snapdeal In Talks To Raise $1 Bn From Alibaba; Looks To Acquire Komli Media For $300 Mn

Online marketplace Snapdeal founded by Wharton Business School Alumnus, Kunal Bahl is in talks with Alibaba for raising a whooping $1 Bn funding round. According to reports, Snapdeal’s top executives, including co-founder Kunal Bahl, was in China last week for negotiations with Alibaba.

Snapdeal, is aiming for a valuation of at least $5 Bn with this round, the 5 year old company is currently valued somewhere between $2-2.5 Bn. “Snapdeal has a term sheet from Alibaba, but is not getting the valuation (it) wants,“ said one of the sources. “On the other hand, private equity firms are making higher offers, so i can likely be a joint investment.”

In 2014, Alibaba held talks with Snapdeal for a possible investment when Jack Ma visited New Delhi. Alibaba had made first investment in India in February, when it acquired 25% stake in Paytm.

Snapdeal had raised about $1 Bn in funding in multiple rounds, it’s investors eBay, Softbank, BlackRock, the Ratan Tata, PremjiInvest, Myriad Asset Management, Tybourne Capital among others. With Softbank being the common investor in both Snapdeal and Alibaba, thus this will also have an influence on the ongoing deal.

Let’s have a look at Snapdeal funding timeline

Month/Year	Funding	Investors
January – 2011	$12 Mn	Nexus Venture Partners and Indo-US Venture Partners.
July – 2011	$40 Mn	Bessemer Venture Partners, Nexus Venture Partners and Indo-US Venture Partners.
April – 2013	$50 Mn	eBay, Bessemer Venture Partners, Nexus Venture and IndoUS Venture Partners
Feb – 2014	$133 Mn	eBay, Kalaari Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Intel Capital and Saama Capital
May – 2014	$100 Mn	Temasek, BlackRock Inc, Myriad, Premji Invest and Tybourne.
August – 2014	Undisclosed	Ratan Tata
October – 2014	$627 Mn	SoftBank

This news comes in at a time when, Flipkart is also rumoured to raise over $1.7 Bn at a $15 Bn valuation soon. Flipkart had raised about $2.45 Bn in total so far, which is more than double of what Snapdeal has raised.

Related: A Look At How Indian Ecommerce Marketplaces Stack Up Against One Another

Komli Media Acquisition

The ecommerce player is also in advanced talks for acquiring Bangalore-based Komli Media for over $300 Mn. Interestingly, just last week Flipkart had acquired Bangalore-based Ad network AdIquity.

According to the Digital Advertising India report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India, India’s online advertising market is set to grow by 30% this financial year to reach a total size of INR 3,575 Cr.

However, Snapdeal declined any such development, and on the other hand Amar Goel, CEO of Komli Media declined to comment.

Komli media was founded in 2006 and had raised $97 Mn in five rounds from investors including Nexus Venture Partners and Peepul Capital.

Snapdeal so far has made 6 acquisitions, these include Grabbon.com, esportsbuy.com, Shopo.in, Doozton.com, Smartprix,  Exclusively.in. On the other side, Flipkart also has 6 acquisitions under its umbrella, these include WeRead, Mime360, Chakpak.com, LetsBuy, Myntra and AdIquity.