Softbank will invest $627 million in Snapdeal, the fastest growing and largest online marketplace in India.
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Founded in 2010 by Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal with more than 25 million registered users and 50,000 registered sellers, Snapdeal is being compared to China’s e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba, which had $25 billion IPO. Softbank, which owns Sprint, holds a 32 percent stake in Alibaba.
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“Since SoftBank’s foundation, our mission has been to contribute to people’s lives through the Information Revolution,” said Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO of SoftBank Corp. “We believe India is at a turning point in its development and have confidence that India will grow strongly over the next decade. As part of this belief, we intend to deploy significant capital in India over the next few years to support development of the market.”
Earlier in October, Legendary Entertainment received a $250 million investment from SoftBank. As part of the investment, SoftBank’s vice chairman and CEO of SoftBank Internet and Media, Inc. Nikesh Arora will be appointed to Legendary’s board of directors. The Japanese company was also in talks in with DreamWorks Animation in September until those conversations collapsed.
“Our entire team at Snapdeal is thrilled and honoured to have SoftBank as a strategic partner,” said Kunal Bahl, co-founder and CEO of Snapdeal.