Indian E-commerce Portal Letsbuy Expected To Raise $40 Million

eTree Marketing Pvt Ltd is a Haryana-based company which operates one of the popular Indian e-commerce portal, Letsbuy.com. The company is reportedly expected to raise over Rs 195 crore (US$40 million), with a valuation of up to Rs 980 crores ($200 million).

Techcircle.in reports that it is in advanced talks with a group of three investors including Sequoia Capital and Matrix Partners, and the deal is expected to be concluded in 20 days.

This was further confirmed by Hitesh Dhingra, the co-founder and chief executive officer of Letsbuy.com, who said to TechCircle that talks are in advanced stages to raise money; but he declined to confirm the deal or the investors.

This follows Letsbuy.com’s initial funding round in January this year, where it raised $6 million (Rs 29.5 crores approx) from venture capitalists like Helion Venture Partners, Accel Partners, and Tiger Global. Previously, the company had also reportedly raised an undisclosed sum from angel investors in May 2010.

This funding further backs up the notion that the Indian e-commerce space is currently experiencing crazy growth and, from our point of view, is an intriguing space to watch at this point in time.

Online retail juggernaut Amazon is entering the Indian market next year and other e-commerce companies like Infibeam, Flipkart, Snapdeal, and Mydala are either raising massive rounds of capital with high valuations or acquiring companies to enter into new territories.

Experts suggest that this growth will be driven further due to the increasing Internet penetration across the country and the increasing availability of broadband services. Some say that the online retail industry in India will be worth Rs 7,000 crore ($1.5 billion) by 2015.