Snapdeal Obtains $627 Million Funding via SoftBank

Snapdeal has some numbers to boast. According to reports, the online retailer has raised a massive $627 million in funding from Japan-based SoftBank.

While this is quite the big news for the company that's competing in the online retail business head-to-head against the likes of Flipkart and Amazon, it's not really a big surprise especially after it was reported a few weeks ago that Snapdeal was indeed planning to raise some money in funding.

"Our entire team at Snapdeal is thrilled and honoured to have SoftBank as a strategic partner. With the support of Son-san and Nikesh [Nikesh Arora, Vice Chairman of SoftBank], we are confident we will further strengthen our promise to consumers and create life changing experiences for 1 million small businesses in India," said Kunal Bahl, Co-founder and CEO of Snapdeal.

With the new fund now placed on the company, Snapdeal plans to improve its technology and supply chain management. It will use the fund to increase its chain of fulfillment centers, apart from new acquisitions in the coming few months, mobile technology being the area of interest.

SoftBank Group, on the other hand, aims to strengthen its presence in India even more and also leverage symbiosis with its network of Internet companies around the world. And this will be achieved through this new strategic investment and partnership with Snapdeal.

"The Snapdeal purchase comes as international investors hunt deals in online retail in India, which has the world's third-largest Internet user base but where e-commerce is still relatively underdeveloped," a Reuters report states.

Stay tuned to GizBot for more updates!