Snapdeal IPO: E-commerce major bets on value fashion for Gen Z in Rs 300-800 segment shifting to curated marketplace

India ’s leading e-commerce platform Snapdeal is approaching its IPO with a new business strategy. Instead of being identified as a platform offering products across multiple categories, it is now positioning itself as a value fashion and lifestyle marketplace, according to MoneyControl. Snapdeal bets on value fashion ahead of IPO Snapdeal’s parent company, AceVector, disclosed an IPO price band of Rs 30-32 per share on September 22. The issue includes a fresh share sale of Rs 287 crore and an offer for sale of up to 4.16 crore shares valued at around Rs 133 crore. Notably, the company on September 22 announced a price band of Rs 30-32 apiece for its IPO . It comprised a fresh issue of Rs 287 crore and an offer for sale of up to 4.16 crore shares, worth around Rs 133 crore. Reportedly, at the upper end of the price band, AceVector will have a post-issue valuation of about Rs 1,741 crore. The IPO will open on September 25 and close on September 29. Achint Setia, CEO of Snapdeal, said the company now aims to offer a more curated fashion experience than as a broad marketplace spanning multiple categories. "Customers looking to buy fashion want a curated experience. They don't want fashion to be mixed with general merchandise, grocery, tools and other categories. That is a key point of differentiation for Snapdeal. Rather than being an all-in-one marketplace, we are building a focused fashion marketplace with technology-led curation and discovery," Setia said. Rohit Bansal, co-founder of AceVector and Snapdeal, said, "The interesting part about the Indian market is that multiple segments coexist and can scale simultaneously. If I just talk about the value lifestyle market, there's an urban lifestyle shopping market, there's a value lifestyle shopping market, or there's a premium branded market and a value market." The company estimates that its core customer sits in the Rs 300-800 price bracket. Its deep-value offerings are at Rs 100-300, and branded fashion is typically priced above Rs 800. More than two-thirds of its new customers are Gen Z, as acknowledged by Bansal. Bansal and co-founder Kunal Bahl are not participating in the OFS. SoftBank's Starfish I Pte Ltd is selling up to 2.76 crore shares, while Nexus India Direct Investments II and FIH Business Global are selling 73.91 lakh and 17.45 lakh shares, respectively, as reported by MC. Other existing investors and individual shareholders will sell the remaining shares. Bansal further shared that his work at Titan Capital, the investment firm he co-founded with Kunal Bahl, also gives him a broader view of new-age business trends. A separate team handles the firm's investments, and staying close to startups and new business models helps inform their decisions as operators, he said. "Making some investments also keeps us current and in the know of where the country is going and where the market is going," Bansal said. "I feel that also helps us become better decision makers when it comes to operating our own business." Snapdeal’s current IPO plans are smaller than its earlier proposal in 2021, when it aimed to raise around Rs 1,250 crore. Also read: SpaceXAI launches Grok 4.7, its most powerful coding model, twice as fast and half the price of comparable models