Snapdeal may pick up 10% in Zimmber for Rs 40-Rs 50 crore

NEW DELHI | BENGALURU: Jasper Infotech, which owns and operates Snapdeal, is in the final stages of talks to invest in on-demand home services platform Zimmber and has placed several other investment proposals to its board.

New Delhi-headquartered Jasper Infotech is expected to invest between Rs 40 crore-Rs 50 crore in Mumbai-based Rejuvenate Solutions, which runs Zimmber, for about a 10% stake, according to multiple sources aware of the developments.

This will be Jasper's second investment in the on-demand services space, after it led a $36 million (about Rs 240 crore) round in hyper-local delivery service PepperTap in September, and is further validation of the company’s growing focus on the fast-growing segment.
It also comes less than two months after rival ecommerce firm Amazon led a Rs 150-crore funding round in home services startup Housejoy, a transaction that also saw participation from Vertex Venture Partners, Qualcomm, ru-Net Technology Partners and Matrix Partners India.

Jasper representatives declined to comment on the potential investment into Zimmber. Anubhab Goel, cofounder and chief executive officer of Zimmber, only said, “Zimmber is an attractive investment opportunity and we are in active discussion with multiple investors.“

Founded in 2014 by Goel, Gaurav Shrivastava and Amit Kumar, Zimmber has about 1,000 service providers on its platform, which allows consumers to book services such as laundry , plumbing, pest control and home cleaning.

The startup, which operates in the Delhi-National Capital Region, Mumbai and Pune, has also been backed by InMobi Chief Executive Naveen Tewari, Jabong's Praveen Sinha, and Akhil Chainwala and Alex Kuruvilla of Conde Nast, among others, who invested in their personal capacities.

In addition to the Zimmber transaction, Jasper Infotech has placed investment proposals in two-three other startups before its board, according to the sources mentioned earlier, as the online retailer continues its aggressive investment and acquisition-led growth strategy that has taken it to the top of the country's startup M&A leaderboard.

Kunal Bahl, CEO of Snapdeal, told ET earlier that the company could make 10-12 acquisitions and investments in the ongoing fiscal year.

Snapdeal, valued at about $5 billion after it raised $500 million from Foxconn, Alibaba Group and SoftBank in August, bought digital payments platform FreeCharge for $400-450 million in April, the largest buyout so far in the Indian consumer internet sector.

It also bought premium and luxury online retailer Exclusively.in, mobile commerce startup Martmobi, financial distribution platform RupeePower and Silicon Valley startup Reduce Data last year. The company also has a 42% stake in Gurgaon-based logistics venture GoJavas.

“The age of monolithic ecommerce platforms is over,“ Bahl had said while announcing the FreeCharge acquisition.