Snapdeal aims US public float in less than 2 years

Delhi-based Jasper Infotech Pvt Ltd, which runs the online marketplace Snapdeal.com, is targeting a US public float in 12-24 months, according to a report in The Economic Times, citing its co-founder Kunal Bahl.

"We are building for the long term and, given our rapidly increasing scale, IPO is looking like a foreseeable path. It is likely to happen in 12-24 months," Bahl said.

According to media reports, Flipkart has an IPO in the pipeline but a timeline has not been drawn up by its two founders Sachin and Binny Bansal.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has filed for an IPO, in what would be the biggest tech firm going public in the US after Facebook. Alibaba, which will apply for listing both on the NYSE and NASDAQ, has disclosed in its filing with the US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it is looking to raise $1 billion but this number could grow up substantially as it is seen as a placeholder amount.

Snapdeal was started as an online deals site and later it pivoted to a full-fledged horizontal e-commerce company via a marketplace model in September 2011. Presently, it boasts of over 5 million products from more than 30,000 sellers across the country. It claims to have achieved a growth rate of 600 per cent in the last one year.

Snapdeal has been expanding its reach and categories, making acquisitions, introducing services commerce by launching an education marketplace and strengthening last-mile delivery systems. Recently, it acquired Doozton.com, a curated and socially-nurtured fashion shop that offers hand-picked fashion-finds and seeks to help people make better shopping decisions and discover fitting apparel.  Last May, the company had acquired Sequoia Capital-backed Shopo.in for an undisclosed amount. A year earlier, it had bought online sports goods retailer Esportsbuy.com.

Snapdeal announced its foray into services commerce and launched an education marketplace on its portal, which enables consumers to access a range of test preparation material, certificate courses, classroom training and online courses.

In February this year, Snapdeal had raised $133.77 million (Rs 830 crore) led by existing investor eBay Inc with participation from other existing investors, in the third-biggest funding round in an Indian tech firm. This took total funding for Snapdeal to $237 million across five rounds.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)