Snapdeal

Yeah, no, I mean, in 2015, almost a decade ago, I finished my undergraduate studies, was very sort of inspired by the Indian dream.

I think that was the year where Ola, Flipkart, Snapdeal, all of these companies had billion-dollar valuations and they were about just six to seven-year-old companies at that point of time, right? And realized that, you know, India...

India's time has come for tech-first companies, right? So ended up coming back to India, worked in venture capital at Kalari Capital for five years.

And during COVID, when all of us had more time, I think for me, personally, I felt that, you know, I wanted to do something more than just... do technology investing.

Uh, we've got a couple of news items today.

Uh, the first one is that Acevector, which is the parent, uh, company, the holding company of both Snapdeal and UniCommerce, they have a third consumer brand as well, has listed today.

It's listed at a slight discount to issue price, but it's listing day nonetheless.

Uh, you remember that UniCommerce had gone, uh, public a couple of years, uh, earlier, so if investors wanted, you know, direct SaaS exposure, that was the way to go about, and now there's the holding company is listed as well.

And one of them later left Microsoft when his H1B visa ran out, he writes.

And this entrepreneur, Kanul Bal, went back to India and founded a really notable e-commerce company called Snapdeal.

And so you can see the argument that would be made here was like, why would you... push these folks out of the country who are going to be leading our most prestigious companies and starting brand new ventures that could fuel the economy that is fundamentally the question that this raises because you want

americans real i'm putting my quote marks up real americans to start companies i just fundamentally disagree with this viewpoint and philosophy I feel like you should do everything in your power to bring the smartest people on the planet to your city, state, country, and then empower them to do great things.

Uh, we have the Indian Minister of Transportation.

We have the CEO, uh, and founder of Snapdeal, India's largest daily deal site, which is now valued at two hundred million dollars.

And we have the director of a UN-funded sustainable transportation think tank in Mumbai, who's also a published expert on car sharing and who helped design the Bangalore Mass Transit System.

Uh, we've also engaged Dave Brook, the founder of the first car sharing, uh, organization in North America, in a paid advisory role.

Now we've been keeping a close eye on the employee tensions at Flipkart.

In fact, before the ex-employees wrote their letter, last week we reported that at least 10 VP- and SVP-level executives have exited Flipkart in recent months with uncertainty around the IPO as peers such as Snapdeal, Meesho, Grow, and Swiggy, and several others race ahead.

Our second story is on UPI MDR.

Well, long live the platform fee because those pesky charges that go up by a rupee now and then are here to stay.

Grow, founded by former Flipkart employees, has also moved rapidly towards the public markets.

And now even Snapdeal, once considered to have fallen behind Flipkart, is working towards an IPO.

So employees aren't just comparing salaries, they are comparing the liquidity attached to their equity.

Now to be sure, Flipkart has not been short of employee liquidity events.

The offering is expected to combine a fresh issue of shares with an offer for sale by existing investors to support platform expansion and facilitate early investor exits.

Three, Ace Vector Limited, the parent company of Snapdeal, is seeking a valuation of about rupees one thousand seven hundred and forty-one crore as it launches a rupees four hundred and twenty crore initial public offering.

The issue includes rupees two hundred and eighty-seven crore fresh issue alongside an offer for sale, with Snapdeal increasingly focused on value fashion and younger price-conscious shoppers.

Four, the government has brought smartphone screen protectors under mandatory BIS certification, with compliance required from April 1st, 2027.

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You are listening to Money Control's Tech3 podcast.

The shares of NSE are set to list on September 24th, giving NSE's patient investors something they have been waiting years for: a liquid public market price tag.

Moving on to our second story, we're gonna talk about two IPOs, both incidentally from the Delhi NCR region.

Now, while Spinny is heading to the markets with a used car pitch, another, Snapdeal, one of the OG e-commerce firms in the country, is trying to convince investors that less is more.

Now, Sachin Tendulkar-backed Spinny has confidentially filed papers for an IPO of about 3,000 crore rupees, joining a growing queue of consumer internet companies eyeing the public markets.