Snapdeal, India's fastest growing ecommerce platform, raises $ 40 million from Bessemer and more

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Because Groupon in business in India continues to hit snags, homegrown daily deals the company quickly snatching market share in the local transaction. New Delhi-based Snapdeal.com, Groupon features a daily deal coupons at special prices, announced today that it raised $ 40 million in series b funding from Bessemer Venture partners, as well as contributions from existing investors Nexus venture and IndoUS Venture partners. According to the Snapdeal founder and CEO of Kunal Bahl is the largest single round of private investment in Internet companies in India so far.
Snapdeal in a new round adds up to $ 12 million in January from Nexus and IndoUS, bringing total investment to $ 52 million. To see the tangible series b from existing investors come immediately after the closing of its series a is somewhat unusual. Of course, if you think that Snapdeal has grown to 500 of its 300 staff and jumped from 1 to 8 million members in six months, one begins to understand why. Snapdeal is scaling quickly, and this new infusion of capital, likely will give the pillows, it needs to continue pushing into new markets.
With the Snapdeal operations are now reaching the 50 largest cities in India and 10 000 brands and retailers, in partnership with the daily website transactions there are good prospects. Moreover, according to the Snapdeal founder and CEO of Kunal Bahl, currently running at an average of 1.5 million new members per month.
The reason the site was the ability to scale quickly, Bahl said, is that half the transactions currently posted on Snapdeal are the incoming requests from merchants. This has significantly shortened sales cycles for Snapdeal, and with his new capital in tow, Snapdeal plans to continue expanding on hyperlocal markets across the subcontinent.
While the Director General said that it was usually difficult for Indian companies to scale, because of the environment of friction and viscosity, and low employee loyalty (and only that, generally speaking, skepticism new, untested companies), and that Snapdeal is also struggling with these hurdles, the team was able to gain from this experience and is now seriously considering more international opportunities in the greater Indiafor example, South Asia and the close of the Middle East and South-East Asia.
Another reason for the rapid growth in 2011 comes from his business deals recently, which is similar in scope, gilt group Snapdeal sells brand name products, lifestyle, fashion accessories, electronics, clothing, etc. with considerable discounts. Since its launch three months ago products business was doubling every month and now account for 15 per cent of the overall business Snapdeal's, Bahl said.
Mobile Commerce is also an asset for the Snapdeal as a 30% share of its members on their mobile devices. As the site enables its customers to receive text alerts on a daily basis (or e-mail), many of his customers get access to deals on the go. And from this scale fast Internet and mobile customer base, Bahl said that many national and international brands launched in partnership with Snapdeal as a means of access to new Indian clients. Levi 's, Pizza Hut, Nike, Marriott and Hyatt hotels, for example, are hopping on board.
Bahl said that the company has plans to expand its staff up to 800 by the end of the year, but so fast scaling large geographic region and control on the ground is no easy feat. He devotes considerable time to the education and training of its staff in the hope that the building not only viral company, but a business that long-term viability — and one in which a staff member is encouraged to retain.
Although Groupon most local news, Snapdeal transaction space hopes that the grant of more than one daily deals and avoiding the minimum threshold levels, it can generate alternative Groupon model and distinguish themselves from the rest of the daily transactions. So far so good. Snapdeal is definitely one to watch. In the end, a small village in India just changed its name to "Snapdeal.com Nagar", after the launch helped set the village pumps.
For more information about creating a big Internet company in India, interested readers should check Bahl to a position in the business Insider. It's an interesting read.
In addition, check the Robin interview with Snapdeal CEO here.

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