Kalaari in talks to sell Snapdeal stake: Could get Rs 50 Cr for its Rs 135 Cr investment

Venture Capital firm Kalaari Capital, online marketplace Snapdeal's early investor, is in talks with the company's promoters to sell its stake in the company.

The venture firm could sell its stake in Sanpdeal for 35-40 per cent (around Rs 50 crore) of its overall investment of Rs 135 crore in the company, said an ET report quoting sources aware of the development. Kalaari Capital holds about eight percent stake in online marketplace.

However, the talks are in early stage and have not reached a consensus. Kalaari Capital is also reported to have been in discussions with other investors for the sale of its shares, added the report.

Entrackr's queries to venture capital firm regarding the development is yet to elicit a response.

If the deal goes through, this will allow Snapdeal founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, firmly believe in their new direction – Snapdeal 2.0, positive push to execute Snapdeal's resurrection as a champion for all sellers in India. The opportunity of e-commerce in India is immense, and the surface of this $200 Billion market has barely been scratched yet, Snapdeal’s founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal had said in a letter to company employees.

Both Kunal and Rohit cumulatively own 7.3 per cent of the Gurgaon-based online marketplace, according to business intelligence platform Paper.vc.

Earlier last year, Flipkart and Snapdeal were in talks for a potential merger. However, the deal couldn’t be materialised and Snapdeal decided to pull out of the deal to pursue an independent path to continue its operations.

The failure of the acquisition deal did serve as a blow to Kalaari. Vani Kola, managing director of Kalaari Capital, resigned from the Snapdeal board had expressed her disappointment with Snapdeal founders to call off the deal.

Snapdeal, which has raised a total of $1.8 billion and once the close competitor to Flipkart, lost the market as the rivalries in the e-commerce segment diversified with the presence of other two players Flipkart and Amazon.

Recently, it sold out logistics and supply chain management arm Vulcan Express to Future Supply Chain Solutions.

Besides, the firm is planning to sell its SaaS-based warehouse management platform Unicommerce eSolutions. It’s reportedly said to be in talks with Amazon and California-based business and financial software company Intuit.

Meanwhile, the Kunal Bahl-led company had registered a whopping revenue fall of 38 per cent in FY17 as compared to the previous fiscal. The company had clocked a consolidated revenue of Rs 904 crore from Rs 1,457 crore FY16.