Snapdeal Says Not in Immediate Need to Raise Money

The SoftBank-backed company trails Flipkart in India's $12 billion online shopping market, with Amazon Inc's India unit close behind in third place, as measured by gross merchandise volume.

Snapdeal raised $627 million from Japan's SoftBank in October last year.

Chief Executive Kunal Bahl said Snapdeal had not yet used that money yet. "(We) don't have to raise money now just because it is fashionable," he said.

Snapdeal last month was in the news when it announced it would be investing between $150 million and $200 million (roughly Rs. 942 crores - Rs. 1,256 crores) to strengthen its delivery network in the next financial year.

The firm added it had invested in a minority stake in logistics company GoJavas, but did not disclose how much the investment was worth.

Also last month, a report was doing the rounds that the much-reported $1 billion Alibaba investment in Snapdeal will not go through, as the Chinese e-commerce giant had scrapped plans to invest in the company in what would have marked its first direct investment in India.

The report which claimed Alibaba was now reluctant to invest in Snapdeal had added that the talks the two firms were engaged in did not involve a deal close to the $1 billion (roughly Rs. 6,234 crores) investment previously reported.

Getting logistics and deliveries in place is a critical requirement for e-commerce firms in India. Snapdeal competes in India with bigger rivals Flipkart and Amazon as they fight to win over the country's 300 million-strong urban middle class, who have come to expect free deliveries and returns as well as great deals on everything from clothes to car accessories.

Written with inputs from Reuters