 "Watch out Amazon: Alibaba may enter Indian e-tail through Snapdeal")
As it gets set to launch what may be the biggest IPO ever, Chinese e-retailer Alibaba may be readying to tap into the growing Indian retail market through an investment in local e-retailer Snapdeal.
The Economic Times quoted an anonymous source as saying that the Chinese retailer has discussed a possible $300 million investment in Snapdeal though both firms are still to decide on it.
“Eventually it (Alibaba) will look at entering the business-to-consumer space in India and talks are on,” another source was quoted as saying in the report.
Alibaba, which has the sales of eBay and Amazon combined, refused to comment to the newspaper about the investment while Snapdeal also chose to remain mum.
Snapdeal has been raising funds from various sources even as bigger rivals like Amazon and Flipkart have said that they will be ramping up investments to boost their presence in India.
A Mint report said that the firm is in advanced talks to raise over $600 million in a fresh infusion of funds from existing investors led by Softbank.
The report quoted an unnamed source as saying the deal will be announced within a month.
The firm had raised $100 million (about Rs 600 crore) in May from Temasek, BlackRock Inc, Myriad, Premji Invest and Tybourne, while in February, it had received funding worth $133.7 million (about Rs 830 crore) from its existing investor, eBay and others.
Snapdeal, which has raised about $400 million since its inception, has invested about $100 million in logistics and operations to expand its presence in the $3 billion Indian e-commerce market. It’s most high profile investment in recent times was made by Tata Group’s chairman emeritus Ratan Tata.
Tata’sinvestment was followed by units of the Tata group like Tata Housing and Croma tying up with the e-retailer to sell their products from the site.
Snapdeal currently houses over 5 million products across 500 diverse categories from over 50,000 sellers.
with inputs from PTI
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