Anand Piramal invests in a resurgent Snapdeal

Anand Piramal, Executive Director of the Piramal Group has invested an undisclosed amount in Snapdeal. The investment has been made by Piramal in his personal capacity. The investment announcement comes a day after the Snapdeal founders, Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, were adjudged as 'Comeback Kid' in the Economic Times Startup Awards, 2019.

According to a statement, Snapdeal's 2.0 strategy has allowed it to rapidly build a differentiated business, with a sharp focus on value-priced merchandise – the largest segment in retail.

Commenting on his personal investment decision in Snapdeal, Piramal said, “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. The company's mission of enabling the success of hundreds of thousands of small businesses in India through its marketplace is commendable. Since 2017, Snapdeal’s revenues have grown rapidly with profitable unit economics. With hundreds of millions of first time eCommerce buyers yet to transact, Snapdeal is well poised to grow in the future."

Snapdeal’s recently announced audited financial results for FY 2018-19 showing a strong all-round topline and bottomline performance at the company. In FY 2018-19, Snapdeal’s revenue soared 73% and its loss dropped sharply by 71%. In the same period, traffic on Snapdeal’s marketplace surged 2.3X to 70 million unique monthly users and the number of transacting users grew 2.2X in the last 12 months.

Kunal Bahl, CEO & Co-founder of Snapdeal added, "Anand's investment comes as a significant endorsement for Snapdeal and the transformation the company has undergone over the last couple of years. His appreciation for what it takes to build a company with growing revenues with good economics in a competitive market comes from his own experiences of building and operating large companies in competitive sectors like real estate and financial services. We are thrilled to have Anand on board this exciting journey."

As per regulatory documents filed by Snapdeal, its consolidated revenues grew to Rs 925.3 crore in 2018-19 as compared to Rs 535.9 crore in 2017-18, marking a sharp increase of nearly 73% in a 12-month period. At the same time, Snapdeal also managed to significantly reduce its loss to Rs 186 crore in FY19 from Rs 611 crore reported in FY18 - a drop of nearly 71%. In the same period, Snapdeal’s revenue from operations grew 87% YoY.

Millions of new buyers from Tier 2&3 cities are starting their e-commerce journeys every month. Similarly, lakhs of small and medium sellers from all parts of the country are looking to establish and grow online businesses to tap this opportunity. Snapdeal’s success in building an efficient, value-focused marketplace has greatly expanded the options for this fast growing, mega segment of e-commerce in India.

In the last two years, Snapdeal has sharpened its focus on the needs of the value-conscious buyers in India. More than 80% of its users come from the small towns and cities of India. This market of nearly 400 million potential buyers is the fastest growing segment in Indian e-commerce. In the last two years, Snapdeal has added 60,000 plus new seller partners, who have added over 50 million new listings. Snapdeal now has more than 500,000 registered sellers, who have more than 200 million listings on the marketplace.