Thursday, March 28

Snapdeal 2.0 Gets Backing From Nexus Venture

Nexus Venture Partners, an early investor in Snapdeal, has come out in support of the e- commerce firm’s decision to pursue “Snapdeal 2.0” instead of accepting rival Flipkart’s $900-950 million acquisition offer.

Nexus Venture Partners is the second investor to come out in support of Snapdeal’s decision, after Kenneth Glass (an early investor in Snapdeal).

Earlier this week, Snapdeal had announced that it was terminating all strategic discussions to pursue a new plan of operations that it calls “Snapdeal 2.0”.

 

 

Nexus Venture Partners also has a seat on Snapdeal’s board that has representation from SoftBank (2 seats), Kalaari Capital and the two founders—Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal.

After the announcement by Snapdeal, there were reports that the decision had not gone down well with a section of the company’s shareholders. According to a report by ET Now, Vani Kola—co-founder of Kalaari Capital—had criticised the move.

 

 

SoftBank, the largest shareholder in Snapdeal and the one driving the merger discussions with Flipkart, has said it respected the decision to pursue an independent strategy. While the Japanese conglomerate holds close to 35% stake in Snapdeal, there are a number of minority stakeholders. These include high-profile names like Ratan Tata and PremjiInvest (investment arm of Azim Premji). Other investors include Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, Foxconn, Temasek and BlackRock.

 


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