In what would easily be one of the biggest valuation write-offs that Indian startups have witnessed till date, ecommerce marketplace ShopClues has found a buyer in Singapore’s Qoo10. The write-off you ask ? Well, the acquisition reportedly values Shopclues at less than $100Mn — a tenth of its last valuation of over $1Billion and almost a third of the total money the company has raised so far ($257 Mn).
In official communications, Shopclues is terming this as a “merger”, since this is largely an all-stock deal. However, the fact that investors are having to move with a write-off of this extent makes it more of a forced compromise, rather than a full-fledged merger. Interestingly, Qoo10 CEO Ku Young Bae had earlier invested an estimated $1 million in ShopClues in his personal capacity, reports Economic Times.
In a statement confirming the acquisition, Shopclues said, “This partnership presents new strategic opportunities for both companies, as it opens up cross-border opportunities for consumers and sellers across Asia”.
Shopclues has had a rather wavey graph to growth till date. In 2015, the company raised $82.1 million from Singapore Press Holdings, eBay, Saban Capital Group, UVM 2 Venture Investments, Brookside Capital and Oak Investment Partners. The company ‘s marquee investors include the likes of Tiger Global, Nexus Venture Partners and GIC, the Singapore Government-owned sovereign wealth fund.
Things began to take a downturn, with the most significant blow coming in from Tiger Global, when the billionaire firm wrote-off its entire $80-$100Mn investment in the company. Its much talked about acquisition deal with Snapdeal also fell through, after the latter found discrepancies in the company’s books during due diligence.
Most recently, the company had raised $1Mn in a bridge round to survive. In 2017, it had taken on debt capital worth $8Mn from Innoven capital.
