According to latest buzz in the market, Indian global telecommunications services company, Airtel is looking to get its hand on online mobile wallet platform, FreeCharge, which is a part of the currently on sale Snapdeal. Airtel's interest in FreeCharge can be understood considering the fact that the New Delhi headquartered telco recently launched its very own Airtel Payments Bank and it also has an online wallet-Airtel Money under the umbrella of services its offers.
While Snapdeal-Flipkart merger negotiations have hit a roadblock with Snapdeal board refusing the initial $800-850 million offer by Flipkart (Read Here), the FreeCharge acquisition is most likely to take place in the next six to eight weeks, according to a report in the Business Standard.
Talks about FreeCharge acquisition negotiations have been going on for quite sometime now. Earlier this year, we have reported how Paytm, MobiKwik, Bank of Baroda (BOB) and Times Internet (Read Here) were all interested in buying the online mobile wallet on sale. In fact, Paytm had even signed a non-exclusive term sheet with FreeCharge at an expected deal value of $45 – $90 million, but the talks never progressed beyond that.
Founded in 2010 by Kunal Shah and Sandeep Tandon, FreeCharge was acquired by Snapdeal in April 2015 for a whopping $450 million which is currently valued at less than 80%. Not only this, recently it also received an investment of $3.38 million from Jasper Infotech.
The company backed by investors such as Valiant Capital Management, Tybourne Capital Management, and Sequoia Capital had secured total of $177.65 million in six rounds of funding including the funds infused by its parent company.
According to the Business Standard report, a source at FreeCharge have informed them that term-sheets from some of the potential buyers would be ready soon.
FreeCharge offers exemplary backend tech platform, which makes it a must have for any company wanting to expand its e-wallet base. It is estimated that the e-wallet has almost 20 million users and about a million-plus offline merchant base.
According to the report, over the past few days, FreeCharge has hosted several townhall meetings at its offices where the employees have been informed that the company is most likely to get acquired within next two months.
While Snapdeal-Flipkart merger negotiations have hit a roadblock with Snapdeal board refusing the initial $800-850 million offer by Flipkart (Read Here), the FreeCharge acquisition is most likely to take place in the next six to eight weeks, according to a report in the Business Standard.
Talks about FreeCharge acquisition negotiations have been going on for quite sometime now. Earlier this year, we have reported how Paytm, MobiKwik, Bank of Baroda (BOB) and Times Internet (Read Here) were all interested in buying the online mobile wallet on sale. In fact, Paytm had even signed a non-exclusive term sheet with FreeCharge at an expected deal value of $45 – $90 million, but the talks never progressed beyond that.
Founded in 2010 by Kunal Shah and Sandeep Tandon, FreeCharge was acquired by Snapdeal in April 2015 for a whopping $450 million which is currently valued at less than 80%. Not only this, recently it also received an investment of $3.38 million from Jasper Infotech.
The company backed by investors such as Valiant Capital Management, Tybourne Capital Management, and Sequoia Capital had secured total of $177.65 million in six rounds of funding including the funds infused by its parent company.
According to the Business Standard report, a source at FreeCharge have informed them that term-sheets from some of the potential buyers would be ready soon.
FreeCharge offers exemplary backend tech platform, which makes it a must have for any company wanting to expand its e-wallet base. It is estimated that the e-wallet has almost 20 million users and about a million-plus offline merchant base.
According to the report, over the past few days, FreeCharge has hosted several townhall meetings at its offices where the employees have been informed that the company is most likely to get acquired within next two months.
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