General Atlantic Partners in talks to buy stake in online retailer Snapdeal: report

US private equity firm General Atlantic Partners is in talks to buy a stake worth $80-100 million (Rs440-550 crore) in Indian online retailer Snapdeal, The Economic Times today reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Snapdeal's existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Nexus Venture Partners and IndoUS Venture Partners will also participate in this round of investment, said the report.

Bessemer, Nexus and IndoUS had in July 2011 invested raised $40 million in the two year-old startup online retailer following a $12 million round of initial funding by Nexus and IndoUS in January 2011.

For General Atlantic, which has around $1 billion in assets under management in India, the investment in Snapdeal will be its first in an Indian ecommerce venture after its failed attempt last year to invest in Snapdeal's rival Flipkart.

Founded in 2010 by Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, Snapdeal offers one deal per day across 30 cities in India, which can be availed by customers through a voucher emailed to them. The company has registered 30,000 merchants. It claims its daily deal newsletter is subscribed to by 1 million users.

Greenwich, Connecticut-based General Atlantic is currently in talks with Bain Capital and Government of Singapore Investment Corp to divest its stake in Indin IT outsourcing firm Genpact, in which it owns a 41-per cent stake jointly with Oak hill Capital Partners, for around $1.5 billion to $2 billion (See: Bain Capital, Singapore's GIC plan joint bid for Genpact stake: report)