Snapdeal issues stock to Nexus, founders for Unicommerce acquisition

NEW DELHI: Troubled online marketplace Snapdeal has allotted preference shares worth Rs 113.16 crore to existing backer Nexus Venture Partners and the company’s founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, in lieu of its 2015 acquisition of Unicommerce eSolutions.

Unicommerce, an e-commerce management software and fulfillment solution provider, was acquired by Snapdeal, for an undisclosed amount, in early 2015. Unlike its other buyouts, the online marketplace, however, has never publicly announced this particular acquisition till date.

At the time of its acquisition by Snapdeal, Unicommerce also counted Nexus Venture Partners as its primary investor, while Snapdeal CEO Kunal Bahl and COO Rohit Bansal, who were amongst the most active angel investors in the country, were also early backers of the New Delhi-based company, which was founded in 2012 by three IIT Delhi alumni.


Snapdeal spokespersons did not respond to queries sent by ET, while Nexus Venture Partners declined to comment on the same at the time of going to press.

As per documents filed by the Gurgaon-based company with the Registrar of Documents, and accessed by corporate research and mentoring platform Tofler, Nexus Venture Partners was issued 14,810 preference shares, valued at Rs 96.26 crore.

Additionally, both, Bahl and Bansal were each allotted 1,300 Series J1 preference shares, which have a cumulative value of Rs 16.90 crore. A resolution to increase the company’s authorised share capital, through the issuance of 17,410 Series J1 compulsorily convertible cumulative preference shares of Rs 20 each, was also taken at an extraordinary general meeting held on March 10.

According to the filings, the premium per share has been stated as Rs 64,980. While the details of Unicommerce’s funding rounds, prior to its buyout by Snapdeal, have not been disclosed, sources indicated that the investors would have recouped a healthy return on their bet on the five-year-old SaaS-based order management and fulfillment platform.

The development comes at a time when rival Flipkart, also India’s largest e-commerce company, is currently undertaking its due diligence, prior to its anticipated takeover of Snapdeal, in a deal that could value the latter at between $700 million-$1 billion, and which is being orchestrated by its largest stakeholder, Japan’s SoftBank.

Earlier this month, ET had reported that Nexus Venture Partners, a long-standing investor in Snapdeal, and which enjoys powerful rights under the shareholders agreement, had agreed to the sale of the company to Flipkart, having earlier withheld its consent to the transaction.

Nexus Venture Partners, which has, till date, invested about $43-$45 million in Snapdeal, for about an 10% stake in the company, could potentially receive about $60 million, in lieu of its holding in the online marketplace, as a special payout.

However, this special payout, estimated at about $150 million, and which also includes Kalaari Capital and the company’s founders, is subject to approval from the rest of the company’s shareholders, a list that includes, PremjiInvest, Ratan Tata, Alibaba group, Foxconn Technology Solutions, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Temasek, among others.