India's ShopClues raises GIC-led round at $1.1b valuation
Singapore's GIC Private has led a new funding round for Indian e-commerce start-up ShopClues that is said to value the company at more than $1.1 billion.
Existing investors Tiger Global and Nexus Venture Partners participated in the round, according to a statement. The company has not revealed the size of the deal, but a report in The Wall Street Journal puts it around $150 million.
The new capital will be used for advertising and improving the company's technology, along with acquisitions. ShopClues says this is its last planned funding round; the company hopes to reach profitability by early next year in order to launch an IPO.
In ShopClues' Series C round last year, Tiger Global, Helion Venture Partners and Nexus committed $100 million. The company claims to ship 3.5 million items per month and to get 100 million visits each month. About 350,000 merchants sell on its platform.
Founded in 2011 by Sandeep Aggarwal, his wife Radhika Aggarwal, and Sanjay Sethi, ShopClues raised a first institutional round from Nexus and others in 2012, followed by a $10 million round from Nexus, Helion, and Japan's Beenos the following year.
However, it was plagued by controversy for several years; first Sandeep Aggarwal was arrested on charges of insider trading at a previous job, and then the company was accused of selling counterfeit products under the L'Oreal label. It has since been banned by the Delhi High Court from selling any products under that brand.
ShopClues seems to have stabilized since then, with its valuation having grown from $350 million at the Series C. The latest valuation puts it among India's e-commerce unicorns, alongside rivals Flipkart and Snapdeal. Unlike those platforms, ShopClues targets customers in India's tier-two and tier-three markets rather than focusing on major cities.
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