Softbank, Japanese telecommunication, Internet and Finance company, is planning to invest $650 million in Snapdeal. After this deal, valuation of Snapdeal will cross $2 billion. Earlier this year in May, Snapdeal valued at $1 billion after raising $100 million. Ratan Tata also invested in Snapdeal back in August this year.
Softbank will get around 30% stake in company. Agreement will likely to reach by the end of this month when Softbank’s CEO and Founder Masayoshi Son visits India. This is not the first time when SoftBank is investing in any Indian firm. Company has already invested in InMobi and has a joint venture with Bharti Airtel. It is worth to mention that Softbank is the largest share holder of Alibaba. SoftBank invested 2 billion yen ($18.7 million at current exchange rates) in Alibaba back in 2000 when Alibaba was in early stage.
After Flipkart’s 1 billion deal, it will be the second largest fund raising by any ecommerce portal. This will make Snapdeal third largest e-commerce portal in India after Amazon and Flipkart.
Indian e-commerce market is growing very fast and is expected to reach up to $32 billion by 2020. This is the reason why many big investment firms are heading towards India and are investing in Indian e-commerce market.
