Snapdeal founders, Nexus pump in $17.5m to tide things over

Snapdeal co-founder and CEO Kunal Bahl. Photo credit: Snapdeal.

Snapdeal’s founders, Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, and early investor Nexus Venture Partners have pumped US$17.5 million into the struggling ecommerce site, according to a regulatory filing spotted by Mint. This extends the runway for Snapdeal amidst protracted negotiations on the terms of its sale to rival Flipkart.

See: A behind-the-scenes look at the merger of Snapdeal and Flipkart

Snapdeal’s biggest investor, SoftBank, has been pushing for its sale after it rapidly lost market share to Amazon last year. But the founders and early investors have been negotiating to try and sweeten the terms for their exit. Media reports have speculated on payouts to the founders and investors in cash and stock, but “there can be many a slip between cup and lip,” a source with first-hand knowledge of the negotiations had told Tech in Asia.

This new development comes right on the heels of SoftBank’s mega round of US$1.4 billion into ecommerce and payments company Paytm – which is now the Japanese giant’s biggest bet in India. Alibaba-and-SoftBank-backed Paytm, Tencent-backed Flipkart, and Amazon leave little room for Snapdeal as a horizontal marketplace for ecommerce.