Snapdeal Snaps Up $200M To Battle For Control Of Indian eCommerce

India FDI

India’s second largest eCommerce site, Snapdeal, is gearing up to play for first position.

The firm has landed $200 million in new funding in a round led by Ontario’s Teacher’s Pension Plan.

A round leader that seems a bit odd, but comes packing a bit of a punch, considering the OTPP is an investment vehicle with about $150 billion in assets.

In its home market of India, Snapdeal finds itself wedged between India’s current reigning eCommerce player Flipkart and Amazon.com, which is third but has clear ambitions to rise from that station. Snapdeal has been no slouch at raising funds, however. This latest big infusion comes under six months after the firm managed to grab up $500 million in a round that featured participation from Alibaba, Softbank and Foxconn.

“We see these investments as a continuing endorsement of Snapdeal’s strategy to build India’s most reliable and frictionless commerce ecosystem,” Snapdeal CFO Anup Vikal said in a statement. “We continue to make targeted investments in building internal and external capabilities that will enable us to consistently deliver optimal experience for the millions of buyers and sellers who transact daily on Snapdeal.”

What new valuation comes with the new found remains unknown, though all in Snapdeal has raised about $1.8 billion. Fipkart has raised $3.2 billion, and Amazon has pledged $2 billion toward India expansion.

And to keep things really interesting, Alibaba is reportedly in talks with Flipkart about a potential investment, meaning the Chinese eCommerce giant is clearly willing to play for multiple teams if it thinks it will up its odds of being on the side of the winner.

Snapdeal currently boasts 300 million products from 275,000 sellers and a reach across 6,000 town and cities in India. Flipkart has a much lower product count, 30 million, but a much higher user count at 45 million registered. Amazon’s figures remain unclear, though many think the gap is narrowing as Amazon is increasingly present in India and familiar to Indian consumers.