Snapdeal bumpy journey seems to be a never-ending process. After the failing of merger talks with Flipkart and boycott by SoftBank, the Indian e-commerce company has faced an another setback as the three co-founders of Unicommerce, Snapdeal’s technology solution arm, has quit the venture.
Ankit Pruthi with two other co-founders Karun Singla and Vibhu Garg have left the firm, which was founded in 2012. While the fourth co-founder Manish Gupta, who later joined the team in 2013 is still part of the technology arm.
According to filings with the Registrar of Companies, Pruthi resigned on May 3. However, it is not clear when Singla and Garg quit the firm.
It was already anticipated that the Snapdeal board will see a lot of attrition following the collapse of merger talks with Flipkart and people will quit because they were expecting to get some retention bonus if the merger happens.
“I can only confirm that I am not part of Unicommerce anymore. However, I cannot talk at length at this point,” Pruthi told to VCCircle.
A Snapdeal spokesperson said Unicommerce’s co-founders have decided to quit the company, after being with the entity for a stipulated period as per the terms of acquisition of Unicommerce by Snapdeal in 2015.
Also Read: Foxconn concedes loss of $160 Mn in Snapdeal, writes down 80% of its investment
Snapdeal, which recently sold its digital payment platform FreeCharge to Axis bank, is trying to get a handsome deal for its logistic arm Vulcan Express, which doesn’t seem to go in their favour.
“For Snapdeal 2.0 to work, the company needs cash. It also needs to shed its associated entities to become slim. However, Unicommerce has a robust product. I see a higher chance of this entity getting sold off before Vulcan. However, this is going to take a lot of time,” said Satish Meena, senior forecast analyst at Forrester.
In 2014, Unicommerce had raised $10 million in a funding round led by investment firm Tiger Global. Prior to that it raised an undisclosed amount in funding from Nexus Venture Partners with participation from Snapdeal co-founders Kunal Bahal and Rohit Bansal.
Unicommerce: Website
