Snapdeal strengthens board with two additions ahead of its Rs 3,000 cr IPO

Zomato Chairman Kaushik Dutta and MD-CEO for ESG Stewardship Services at ECube Investment Advisors inducted

SoftBank-backed Snapdeal that is likely to file its draft red herring proposal in the next few months has strengthened its Board with key appointments. The company announced the appointment of Kaushik Dutta and Richa Arora to the board ahead of its Rs 3,000 crore IPO.

The company said that it has appointed Kaushik Dutta, the Chairman of Zomato, and is on the Boards of Policy Bazaar & HCL Infosystems. He is the founding co-director of Thought Arbitrage Research Institute (TARI) - an independent and non-partisan Indian think-tank that focuses on the issues of Corporate Governance, Sustainability, Economics, and Public Policy.

Snapdeal also confirmed the appointment of Richa Arora, managing partner and CEO for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Stewardship Services at ECube Investment Advisors and has also been on the Board of Tata Group's e-commerce venture. 

Snapdeal, which operates India's value e-commerce platform counts BlackRock, Temasek, Foxconn, Premji Invest, Intel Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners and Ratan Tata and could be valued at around $2.5-3 billion.

Founded by Kunal Bahl in 2010, the new appointments on the board will enable it to focus on ESG.

Over the last three to four years,  Snapdeal has worked on becoming India's leading value e-commerce platform, helping Indian e-commerce grow beyond just brands and urban users. Nearly 80 per cent of Snapdeal's users come from non-metro locations highlighting its deep reach across the length and breadth of the country.

Snapdeal hosts a wide selection of good quality, value-priced merchandise across fashion, home, beauty and personal care, general merchandise and other categories. With more than 200 Mn app installations, it is one of the top online shopping destinations in India.

As part of its efforts to deepen the availability of value merchandise online, Snapdeal has in the last year added more than 5,000 manufacturer-sellers on its platform, it said in March.

Most of these manufacturer-sellers are from hubs like Meerut, Ludhiana, Tiruppur, Jaipur, Panipat, Surat, and Rajkot and cover popular products like juicers and food processors, steel and copper utensils, crockery, bed linen, fashion accessories, kids’ wear, sarees and suits, casual apparel, and fitness equipment.

According to a recent industry report by global consulting firm Kearney, the growing number of value-conscious online shoppers is reshaping India’s e-commerce landscape. Value-conscious online buyers focus on finding affordable products that meet their needs of desirable quality, durability, and trendiness.

The distinctive shopping behaviours and needs of these consumers have led to the rise of value e-commerce - differentiated business models optimized to serve the needs of value-conscious online customers. Currently estimated at $4 billion, value e-commerce in India is expected to see fast growth at 26 per cent CAGR and will reach $40 billion by 2030.

The amount raised through IPOs in India so far in 2021 has already surpassed the total gathered in the last three years IPOs like Nykaa, Paytm, Policybazaar expected to hit in the next few weeks.