Snapdeal is looking to raise US $ 100 million, its first fresh round of financing in 3 years, from existing and new investors, including Japan’s SoftBank.
The Indian e-commerce giant had changed its strategy and focused on smaller towns and unbranded products after its failed acquisition by Flipkart back in 2017.
Snapdeal is currently being valued in the range of US $ 800 million to US $ 1.2 billion and is working with Bank of America Merril Lynch as its advisor and talking to local and global investors.
The current revenue of the company is US $ 140 million.
The last round of capital-raising happened in 2016 from investors, including Ontario Teachers Pension Plan which valued the company at US $ 6.5 billion.
However, following the failed acquisition by Flipkart, Snapdeal founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal bought around 10 per cent stake from exisiting investors at a valuation below US $ 100 million.
The new round will be an indication if the company has been able to win trust of investors after significant value erosion, and will set a new valuation benchmark for the company.
In July, Snapdeal said it had managed to cut its losses by 70 per cent to Rs. 186 crore while increasing consolidated revenue by 73 per cent to about Rs. 925 crore at the end of March 2019.