The e-commerce giant aims to go public in early 2022 after filing a draft of the red herring prospectus, or DRHP, the people said, asking not to be identified while talking about a private matter. SnapdealHe said, once Amazon.com Inc. Walmart Inc.’s largest rival and the world’s fastest growing major online space. Flipkart plans to raise at least $200 million at a valuation of $1.5 billion.
The company did not immediately comment on its filing plans or other financial statements.
Snapdeal, which primarily caters to middle-class consumers neglected by its larger rivals, will become the biggest tech company to test investor IPO appetite after the disastrous start of Paytm’s parent, One97 Communications Ltd. The fintech giant has lost almost 20% of its share price since its launch on November 18th.
Snapdeal is hoping to replicate the strong performance of fellow online commerce firms like food delivery platform Zomato Ltd and beauty retailer FSN E-Commerce Ventures Ltd, which owns Nykaa. Snapdeal’s largest shareholders, including Chinese e-commerce leader Alibaba and SoftBank, are not selling shares, the people said.
Snapdeal, founded in 2010, had emerged as one of the leading e-commerce providers in the country, but lost out to its larger rivals. In 2017, it did away with a possible merger with Flipkart that would have pitted the two local-based e-commerce companies against Amazon, a deal that SoftBank was pushing.
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The Japanese investor then led the funding round for Flipkart. Since then, Walmart bought a controlling stake in Flipkart, which is now heading towards its own IPO.
—With assistance from David Morris.