Groupon India Gets $20 Mn From Sequoia Capital: Reports

In a bid to further expand its business in asian market, Daily deals site and ecommerce platform, Groupon India has raised $20 Mn in funding from venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, says multiple reports. The move aims to make Groupon India, more autonomous from its parent company in the US.

The deal has already been announced to the company’s senior staff, but is yet to be public. The company has also signalled to to go for another round of funding in 2016. Groupon India’s CEO Ankur Warikoo and Sequoia have declined to comment on this development.

According to the media reports, Groupon has already made clear that it plans an aggressive expansion in Asia. Recently, the company was also in news for selling out it stake in Ticket Monster. Groupon bought Ticket Monster from rival LivingSocial Inc about a year ago for $260 Mn.

Groupon India was formed as a result of the acquisition of Indian-born SoSasta in February 2011. Since its inception, the company has not been able to successfully break into the field. While companies like Flipkart and Snapdeal continue to raise billions, it has been largely struggling to break into mainstream ecommerce space.

The company has recently posted Q4 earnings with a 20% rise in Q4 revenues to $925.4 Mn on non-GAAP EPS of $0.06 and GAAP EPS of $0.01. It also said that active deals were at 370,000 globally at the end of Q4 as compare to 300,000 in the previous quarter. Active customers were up 23% over last year to 53.9 million.

In 2015 so far, Sequoia-led deals have accounted for 12% of all Indian startup venture rounds and 33% of capital raised by those startups in 2015. The venture capital firm targets sectors like Energy, Enterprise, Financial, Healthcare, Internet, Mobile and has presence in China, India, Israel, United States region.

Its portfolio in India, which has around 75 companies, includes, PepperTap, Grofers, TinyOwl Technology, Homelane, Practo Technologies, Capital Float, Capillary Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which builds customer engagement software; Druva Software Pvt. ltd, which builds cloud backup solutions; cellphone manufacturer Micromax Technologies Pvt. Ltd; and business listings service providers Just Dial Pvt. Ltd and Zomato Media Pvt. Ltd.

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