Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus, Ratan Tata, has invested in online marketplace Snapdeal.com. "Mr Tata has made a personal investment in the company," said Bahl, CEO, Snapdeal. The investment amount, however, was not disclosed.  In the beginning of August, we had reported that Ratan Tata might be exploring the investment in a personal capacity.

"This stands testimony to the growth and success that we have seen in a short span of 4 years," said Kunal Bahl, Founder & CEO, Snapdeal. Since its inception, the company has raised about $400 million. It has invested about USD 100 million in logistics and operations to expand its presence in the $3 billion Indian E-commerce market.

"An investment by a legendary and respected figure like Mr. Tata is an excellent validation of our focused strategy on building a long term enterprise and marks the start of a very  important phase for the company," Bahl said. He further added that Snapdeal has seen 600% growth year-on-year for the last two years. 

Snapdeal currently houses over 5 million products across 500 diverse categories from over 50,000 sellers.  The company had raised $100 million in May from Temasek, BlackRock Inc, Myriad, Premji Invest and Tybourne, while in February, it had received funding worth $133.7 million from its existing investor, eBay and others. 

A report by consulting firm Technopak pegs the $2.3 billion E-retailing market to reach USD 32 billion by 2020.  Snapdeal rival Flipkart on July 29 announced a $1 billion funding, which is the largest in the fledgling E-commerce sector. A day later, world's largest E-retailer Amazon said it will pump in $2 billion to bolster business here. 

Another report by consultancy firm PwC and industry body Assocham suggests that E-commerce firms are expected to spend up to $1.9 billion by 2017-2020 on infrastructure, logistics and warehousing

Source: PTI

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