Ratan Tata enters e-commerce space, invests in Snapdeal.com

Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata has invested in online marketplace Snapdeal.com. The investment amount, however, was not disclosed.

Snapdeal, which has raised about $400 million since its inception, has invested about $100 million in logistics and operations to expand its presence in the $3 billion Indian e-commerce market.

"Mr Tata has made a personal investment in the company," Snapdeal cofounder and CEO Kunal Bahl said. "This stands testimony to the growth and success that we have seen in a short span of 4 years," he added.

The marketplace currently houses over 5 million products across 500 diverse categories from over 50,000 sellers.

"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.

Snapdeal has seen 600 per cent growth year-on-year for the last two years, he added.

The Delhi-based firm had raised $100 million (about Rs 600 crore) in May from Temasek, BlackRock Inc, Myriad, Premji Invest and Tybourne while in February, it had received funding worth $133.7 million (about Rs 830 crore) from its existing investor eBay and others.

A report by consulting firm Technopak pegs the $2.3 billion e-tailing market to reach $32 billion by 2020.

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.

Snapdeal rival Flipkart had on July 29 announced a $1 billion funding, which is the largest in the fledgling ecommerce sector. A day later, world's largest e-tailer Amazon said it will pump in $two billion to bolster business here.