Zero Salary For Co-Founders And Pink Slips For Employees In Snapdeal: 10 Things To Know

At a time when startups in India are struggling to raise fresh funds, Snapdeal's co-founders,  Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal have decided to take a 100 per cent cut in their salaries. The SoftBank-backed firm, which is third largest in the market place e-commerce segment, has been struggling to raise fresh funding, and has seen its valuation coming down. The company is also laying off hundreds of employees and has begun the process of eliminating non-core projects to focus on "profitable growth".

Here are 10 developments on the issue

1)   "We are combining teams, reducing layers, eliminating non-core projects and strengthening the focus on profitable growth. Sadly, we will also be saying really painful goodbyes to some of our colleagues in this process," Said Kunal Bahl in an email to employees. Both Mr Bahl and Mr Bansal would stop drawing their salaries for an indefinite period.

2) According to reports, Snapdeal started the process of  lay-offs last week, and around 500-600 people across the company,  Vulcan (logistics) and Freecharge (digital payments business) are expected to receive the pink slip.

3)    Snapdeal had last reported employee strength of 8,000 people. The company is locked in an intense battle with rivals Amazon and Flipkart.

4)    In his email, Mr Bahl conceded that over the last 2-3 years, with all the capital coming into this market, the company and the entire industry "started making mistakes".

5)    Mr Bahl also cited examples of global companies like Apple, Tesla, Amazon, Netflix, Lego and Spicejet that "painted themselves into a corner many times over" before they became successful.

6)    Just a few days ago, Mr Bahl had said in an interview to Reuters that his company expected to turn profitable in the next two years.

7)    Snapdeal reported a loss of Rs. 296 crore in the financial year to March 31, 2016, according to regulatory filings.

8)    Snapdeal owned marketplace Shopo shut down on February 10, after a year and a half of operations.

9)    In 2013, Snapdeal had acquired Shopo. The platform allowed small and medium-sized businesses to chat, buy and sell on the platform on a zero-commission model. In 2015, Snapdeal had invested $100 million in the marketplace.

10)    In the earning statement for nine months ended December,2016, SoftBank wrote off 39.28 billion yen in the value of shares in its Indian investments, which include Ola and Snapdeal. Softbank had invested $627 million in Snapdeal in October 2014.