Jasper raises $12 million from Nexus and IndoUS

Jasper Innovative Marketing Solutions, owner of the group buying portal Snapdeal.com, has raised $12 million in a series B financing from Nexus Venture Partners and existing investor IndoUS Venture Partners.

It raised its first round from IndoUS with its earlier angel funding from unnamed US investors.

The money raising exercise is seen as a bid for global expansion. The company is present in five countries,
Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives and Singapore, and is now mulling acquisition of firms in Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia.

Kunal Bahl, CEO of Jasper, in an earlier conversation with VC Circle had said the group was considering 6-7 candidates in the range of $25,000- $1 million on stock-and-cash deals. He said the company was also looking at domestic acquisitions of firms that are allied to the group buying space.

Towards this end the company has also floated Jasper Innovation Fund.

Further, the company has allocated $2 million for domestic acquisitions. Jasper acquired Bangalore-based startup Grabbon in June 2010, which is to be relaunched. In June, VC Circle had reported that Snapdeal and Grabbon would be positioned as having different value propositions with one being focused on a premium segment, the other would catering to a mass market.