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Snapdeal Acquires FreeCharge

Snapdeal Acquires FreeCharge; The Largest Acquisition In Indian Digital Space

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by

Asish Das
in

Snapdeal Acquires FreeCharge

The leading online marketplace Snapdeal today announced its acquisition of mobile and DTH recharge platform, FreeCharge, in what the online marketplace calls as “one of the largest acquisitions” in the Indian digital commerce space.

The deal value wasn’t disclosed by either of the companies, but sources which are involved in this acquisition said FreeCharge was valued around $450 million.

“At Snapdeal, we are building an ecosystem that powers billions of digital commerce transactions in the country in the coming years,” Snapdeal co-founder and CEO Kunal Bahl said.

“With this partnership with FreeCharge, Snapdeal has significantly enhanced its user base”, he added.

According to the terms, FreeCharge will continue to function as an independent platform with it’s team of 200 professionals.

“The partnership with Snapdeal comes at the right time, I foresee this as an opportunity to accelerate our roadmap in India and reach out to millions of users across the country,” FreeCharge co-founder and CEO Kunal Shah said.
FreeCharge is a service portal that offers promotions or discounts from various food joints and retailers every time a customer uses its platform for a recharge.

The company claims to have more than 15 million users in India. It recently raised an $80 million Series C and counts Sequoia Capital and other investors.

Snapdeal, which received $627 million funding from Japan’s SoftBank last year,had earlier acquired Exclusively.in in February, fashion discovery startup Doozton and Wishpicker in 2014.

The deal happened on Twitter. This is how Snapdeal proposed FreeCharge to recharge it for a lifetime.

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