Entrepreneurship full for twists and turns, end destination matters: Bahl

AceVector's IPO opens on September 25 as Snapdeal co-founder Kunal Bahl reflects on its journey and says the company remains focused on long-term growth

Kunal Bahl was among the early faces of India’s e-commerce boom, building Snapdeal from a discount-coupons venture into one of the country’s leading online marketplaces at a time when the sector was still taking shape.

 

More than a decade later, Bahl is taking the parent company of Snapdeal, AceVector public. AceVector has fixed the price band at ₹30-32 per equity share for its ₹420 crore initial public offering (IPO), with the issue opening on September 25 and closing on September 29. The anchor investor bidding date is September 24. 

 

The IPO comes after a journey that saw Snapdeal emerge as one of India’s early e-commerce unicorns. It faced intense competition and a proposed merger with Flipkart, but eventually repositioned itself around value commerce.

 

Reflecting on the journey, Bahl, cofounder, promoter and joint managing director (JMD), Snapdeal, said the road has been marked by its share of twists and turns, but the company has remained focused on its long-term destination. 

 

“An entrepreneurship journey is long and will always have twists and turns, but what matters is that the end destination remains very clear in your mind. We are very excited about what we are building across both our businesses, Snapdeal and Unicommerce,” Bahl said.

 

The IPO comprises a fresh issue of shares aggregating up to ₹287 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of up to 41.56 million shares from existing investors.

 

The company has reduced its offer size, given it earlier planned a fresh issue of ₹300 crore and an OFS of 63.87 million shares, according to updated draft red herring prospectus (DHRP). 

 

According to Rohit Kumar Bansal, cofounder, promoter and JMD, the reduction was only in the OFS component, and not the fresh issue. “The amount of money the company is raising for investment and growth remains the same. The OFS size was reduced because our investors wanted to retain a greater ownership stake in the business as it continues to make progress.”

 

Bansal added that a large chunk of shareholders remains invested in the business. They continue to see the long-term growth potential. Those participating in the OFS include SoftBank's Starfish I Pte Ltd (27.61 million shares), Nexus India Direct Investments II (7.39 million shares) and FIH Business Global (1.74 million shares). 

 

Notably, Bahl and Bansal, who are the largest shareholders and collectively own 33.99 per cent, are not selling any shares. Alongside them, Softbank (30.11 per cent) and Nexus Venture Partners (8.05 per cent) are the top shareholders. Other notable shareholders are eBay, Foxconn, Temasek, Intel Capital and Premji Invest. 

 

Speaking of the company’s financial performance, Bahl said, “At the AceVector level, revenue grew nearly 30 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) and we were also free-cash-flow positive last year. There is strong forward momentum across the entire business, and as a management team and as founders, we are focused on leveraging the tailwinds of e-commerce in India to grow our businesses.”

 

In FY26, AceVector reported operating revenue of ₹510.38 crore, a 29 per cent increase from ₹395.01 crore in FY25. Its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda) loss narrowed to ₹15.94 crore, improving 59 per cent from ₹39.15 crore last financial year.

 

The company also generated a positive adjusted free cash flow from operations of ₹10.82 crore in FY26.

 

On the value commerce segment, Achint Setia, chief executive officer (CEO) of Snapdeal, said while the market is large with multiple players operating, it is not uniform.

 

“Online, there are several platforms in the branded premium space serving affluent urban customers, while platforms such as Meesho serve the ultra-price-conscious customer in the sub-₹300 price band. What we are doing at Snapdeal is building a value version of a fashion marketplace like Myntra, offering the same trendiness, fashionability and curated shopping experience that a branded customer looks for, but at a value price point.”