Anand Piramal, executive director of the Piramal Group has invested an undisclosed amount in Jasper Infotech, which owns and operates Snapdeal. The investment was made in Piramal’s personal capacity. Earlier this year, the Piramal group scion had made an investment of Rs 75 lakh in fitness and healthcare startup, Curefit routed through his family trust Anand Piramal Family Trust, regulatory filings show.
The renewed interest in Snapdeal comes at a time when the online marketplace has considerably improved its financials and cut losses in the past year. The company, which has moved away from fighting Flipkart and Amazon is now focused on what it calls value conscious customers. Last week, it said that on a yearly basis consolidated revenue shot up 73% to Rs 925.3 crore while losses narrowed more than 71% to Rs 187.4 crore.
Snapdeal was last valued at $2.5 billion or Rs. 17,255.5 crore in March 2017 when it raised Rs. 113.2 crore from Nexus Venture Partners along with co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal. SoftBank Group continues to be the largest investor in the company with a 33% stake.
Last week, Snapdeal co-founders won in the Comeback Kid category at the prestigious Economic Times Startup Award 2019 for having survived a sharp fall in 2017 which almost took the company to oblivion. This was after its much publicised acquisition by Flipkart didn’t go through and the founders took control of Snapdeal.
“Snapdeal’s sharp execution in bringing great selection to the mass market segment in tier 2-3 cities has been quite successful, leveraging the growing Internet penetration in these geographies,” Piramal said in a prepared statement.
“Anand’s investment comes as a significant endorsement for Snapdeal and the transformation the company has undergone over the last couple of years,” said Bahl, CEO and co-founder of Snapdeal.
