VC-backed Snapdeal buys stake in logistics platform

According to LiveMint, Snapdeal paid INR1.2 billion ($20 million) for the stake, valuing the business at INR6 billion.

GoJavas was once part of Jabong, a lifestyle e-commerce site backed by Rocket Internet, but spun out as a third-party logistics firm in 2013. Its services include inventory management, packaging, real-time product tracking, and cash-on-delivery.

The firm has a 50,000 square feet warehouse and claims to serve 30,000 consumers daily across 85 cities in India. Its clients includes online markets suchs as Jabong, Fabfurnish, Lenskart, Healthkart, and Yepme.

Snapdeal has raised around $1.6 billion from its VC backers since it launched in 2010. Its most recent round was in October when it raised $627 million from SoftBank Internet and Media (SIMI) - the internet investment arm of the Japanese tech giant.

The firm has made a number of investments and strategic acquisitions in the past two years, including: social marketplace Doozton; group buying site Grabbon.com; gifting recommendation platform Wishpicker.com; sports goods site eSportsBuy.com; and handicraft marketplace Shopo.in. More recently it bought a stake in price comparison site Smartprix.com.

Snapdeal’s rival Flipkart - which has raised $2.8 billion in VC money since its inception - has also being making investments elsewhere in the e-commerce space, acquiring Jabong's rival Myntra for $300 million in May last year, and AdIQuity, a domestic mobile ad network, earlier this month.

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• Topics
• Technology
• Expansion
• Consumer
• Early-stage
• South Asia
• Venture
• Consumer
• India
• TMT
• Technology