Snapdeal has raised about $17 million from its existing investors in a round led mainly by Nexus Venture Partners.

This comes even as there are indications of a possible merger between Snapdeal and Flipkart, a deal understood to be brokered by Japanese investor SoftBank.

According to a filing with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), Jasper Infotech, the parent of Snapdeal, has stated that Nexus Venture has invested about ₹96 crore in the Delhi-based company.

BusinessLine accessed the RoC documents on the business research platform Tofler.

The documents also mention that the founders Kuṇal Bahl and Rohit Bansal have also pumped in about ₹17 crore in the company, thus taking the total funding in the latest round to ₹113 crore.

Snapdeal has been struggling to raise a big round of funding since the past 12-16 months even though it is backed by Japanese internet giant SoftBank.

For operational expenses

According to industry sources, the latest round could be for meeting the company’s immediate operational expenses.

When contacted, Snapdeal declined to comment and Nexus Venture could not be contacted immediately.

The fresh funds have surprised the start-up and e-commerce ecosystem, which has been speculating that bigger and arch rival Flipkart has already signed a term sheet for a possible buyout of Snapdeal, which also has investors such as Kalaari Capital and Ratan Tata.

SoftBank had recently announced that it has written down its entire investments in Snapdeal.

According to sources, Nexus was initially not in favour of the Flipkart and Snapdeal merger and had been opposing the deal. Kalaari’s founder Vani Kola, has also resigned from Snapdeal’s board.

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