Still private and far below peak; rejected a ~$900M Flipkart buyout in 2017; IPO prospectus withdrawn Dec 2022.
The rise & fall
8 moments Β· 2010β2022
The key moments.
2010
π±
2010
Founded in Delhi
Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal start with daily deals, then pivot to an e-commerce marketplace.
Wikipedia
2014
π¦
2014
SoftBank makes it a unicorn
A $627M SoftBank investment turns Snapdeal into one of India's e-commerce giants.
Reuters
2016
π
2016
The peak: ~$6.5B$6.5B
Huge rounds led by SoftBank and Alibaba value Snapdeal at about $6.5B.
Reuters
2016β17
2016β17
Amazon and Flipkart squeeze
Mounting losses and brutal competition erode its position in the market it helped build.
Reuters
Jul 2017
Jul 2017
Walks away from a Flipkart rescue
Under pressure from founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, the board rejects a SoftBank-brokered ~$900-950M sale.
Reuters
2017
π
2017
Slips out of the club
After the deal collapses, a slimmed-down 'Snapdeal 2.0' survives β at a fraction of the peak valuation.
Reuters
Dec 2022
Dec 2022
IPO shelved
Snapdeal confidentially withdraws its draft prospectus amid weak market conditions.
Reuters
How it happened
Snapdeal was one of India's earliest e-commerce giants, reaching a peak valuation of about $6.5B in 2016 after huge funding rounds led by SoftBank and Alibaba. Mounting losses and brutal competition from Amazon and Flipkart eroded its position, and in 2017 its board β under pressure from founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal β walked away from a roughly $900-950M acquisition by Flipkart that SoftBank had brokered.
The company survived in a slimmed-down 'Snapdeal 2.0' form but never regained its scale, and it confidentially withdrew its planned IPO in December 2022 amid weak market conditions, leaving it worth a fraction of its peak.
Source: Reuters / InfotechLead (peak $6.5B 2016 on SoftBank + Alibaba money; rejected ~$900-950M Flipkart deal July 2017; IPO prospectus withdrawn Dec 2022)
