Alibaba Eyes Indian e-commerce Market, Plans To Invest In Snapdeal

Influenced by India’s growing online retail market, there are reports that Chinese e-retailer Alibaba may invest in local e-retailer Snapdeal in a bid to tap the e-commerce sector.

The Chinese retailer has discussed a possible $300 million investment in Snapdeal, one of India’s largest online marketplaces, though both firms are still to decide on it, The Economic Times quoted an anonymous source as saying.

However, Alibaba, which has the sales of eBay and Amazon combined, refused to comment to the newspaper about the deal.

On the other hand, Snapdeal also remained mum about the investment. It has been raising funds from various sources even as bigger rivals like Amazon and Flipkart have said that they will be ramping up investments in order to improve their presence in India.

If we believe the media reports, Delhi-based Snapdeal is in advanced talks to raise $600 million in a fresh infusion of funds from existing investors led by Softbank. Also, there are reports that the deal will be announced within a month.

The popular e-tailer had received funding worth $133.7 million (about Rs 830 crore) in February from its existing investor, eBay and others. In May, Snapdeal had raised $100 million (about Rs 600 crore) from Temasek, BlackRock Inc, Myriad, Premji Invest and Tybourne.

In a bid to expand its presence in the $3 billion Indian e-commerce market, Snapdeal has invested about $100 million in logistics and operations. Recently, its most high profile investment was made by Tata Group's chairman emeritus Ratan Tata.

This was followed by units of the Tata group--Tata Housing and Croma--tying up with the e-commerce site to sell their products.

Currently, Snapdeal houses over 5 million products across 500 diverse categories from over 50,000 sellers.
(Image: indiatimes)