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Softbank, Foxconn, Alibaba lead $500m round for Snapdeal

  • Holden Mann
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SoftBank Group, Foxconn Technology Group and Alibaba Group have led a $500 million investment in Indian online marketplace Snapdeal.

Existing investors Temasek Holdings, BlackRock Private Equity Partners, Myriad Asset Management and PremjiInvest also participated in the investment, which values Snapdeal at $5 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company plans to use the funds to boost its competitiveness in India's rapidly growing e-commerce sector.

As part of the transaction, eBay is also selling a part of its stake in Snapdeal; reportedly the US e-commerce marketplace's shares will be bought by Foxconn. In a statement, eBay said that it will deploy the revenue from the sale to support its own operations in India, and that it will retain "a significant portion of our original investment in Snapdeal."

SoftBank is one of Snapdeal's largest institutional investors. The firm invested $627 million in the company last October; it was the biggest round to that point for Snapdeal, and the second-largest for any Indian e-commerce company after Flipkart's $1 billion round earlier in 2014.

Alibaba's involvement in the deal reflects its growing interest in e-commerce outside of China. The company has previously made its deep pockets felt in India with a $550 million investment in mobile payment services provider Paytm. Alibaba's investment gained it a 25% stake in Paytm.

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