In a surprise twist to troubled e-commerce firm Snapdeal, the company has received Rs.113 crore in an emergency funding round from existing investor Nexus Venture Partners and the company’s founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, in lieu of its 2015 acquisition of Unicommerce eSolutions.

As per documents filed by Snapdeal with the Registrar of Documents, and accessed by corporate research and mentoring platform Tofler, Nexus Venture Partners was issued 14,810 preference shares, valued at Rs 96.26 crore while the founders -- Bahl and Bansal, were each allotted 1,300 Series J1 preference shares, which have a cumulative value of Rs 16.90 crore (Rs8.45 crore each) making a total of Rs 113 crores.

The funding round comes as a surprise as Snapdeal has been in talks to get acquired by its bigger rival Flipkart amid a boardroom battle involving its three most powerful investors and its co-founders.

It's not clear how the latest funding round, which increases Snapdeal runway by a few months, will affect the company’s talks with Flipkart for plausible sell out.

Nexus, one of Snapdeal’s earliest backers, has -- till date -- invested about $43-$45 million in Snapdeal, for about an 10% stake in the company. Nexus will now receive about $60 million, in lieu of its holding in the online marketplace, as a special payout.

Notably, this special payout, estimated at about $150 million, and which also includes Kalaari Capital and the company’s founders, is subject to approval from the number of other shareholders in Snapdeal which includes -- Ajim Premji, Ratan Tata, Alibaba group, Foxconn Technology Solutions, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Temasek, among others.

Flipkart, on other hand, has signed a binding term-sheet to acquire rival Snapdeal and is scheduled to undertake commercial and financial diligence in the next few days.
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