Japan’s Softbank picks Snapdeal to enter Indian retail; to invest $210m in cab booking app
The investment by SoftBank will further push the fight between Snapdeal, Flipkart and Amazon to intensify as they will try to grab more market-share in the
on-line space
New Delhi: Japan-based telecom and internet giant SoftBank on Tuesday announced an investment of $627 million in Snapdeal to become the largest shareholder in the domestic e-commerce firm. This is the biggest investment by a single investor in the e-commerce sector in India. SoftBank, chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son, who was an early investor in Chinese e-commerce site Alibaba, said that company will invest $10 billion in the next 10 years in India.
The investment will give Snapdeal the war chest to take on rivals Flipkart and Amazon which recently got record amounts of investments. With the current round of funding Snapdeal has raised about $1 billion in this year. “We believe India is at a turning point in its development and hsave 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,” said Mr Son.
Snapdeal will look at making three or four bolt-on acquisitions in the coming few months specifically in the area of mobile technology. Meanwhile SoftBank and other investors are investing $210 million in mobile app for cab-booking: Ola.Ola said the new round of funding will help it to expand to newer cities.
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