Indian eCommerce startup ShopClues has had a US$100 million funding injection from private investors after spurning takeover bids from rival e-tailers.
Founded in Silicon Valley, California in July 2011 ShopClues.com describes itself as India’s first fully managed marketplace that connects buyers and sellers online and offering a trusted and safe online shopping experience.
The latest funding round was led by Tiger Global and includes existing private equity investors, with ShopClues’ owners reluctant to accept offers from Flipkart, Alibaba and Snapdeal.
The deal values ShopClues at $350 million on paper.
Radhika Aggarwal, co-founder and chief marketing officer at Shopclues, said the funds would be deployed on technology, marketing and “everything else that will enable more sellers to come on our platform”.
“Our focus is to be the largest platform for unstructured, mass market, high-margin product categories.”
Shopclues expects to break even in mid 2016. It is considered the market leader online for small businesses and local businesses who might otherwise lack access to online shoppers. It now has more than 100,000 businesses registered, most of them in tier 2 and 3 cities.
ShopClues offers more than 7500 global & Indian brands and 16 million SKUs across more than 5000 listing categories. It ships orders to more than 25,000 cities and runs a loyalty program.
The company has more than 550 employees in India, based in Gurgaon, New Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur and Vadodara.
Massive amounts of cash have been flowing into India’s eCommerce sector in the last two years, with Flipkart raising $1.9 million last year alone, Snapdeal $627 million, and Amazon committing to spend $2 billion developing its Indian operations.