PremjiInvest, Wipro chairman Azim Premji's personal investment arm and one of the investors in e-commerce firm Snapdeal, is not kosher with special payments to co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, apart from investors like Kalaari Capital and Nexus Venture Partners, prior to the planned merger with bigger rival Flipkart.
Snapdeal intends to pay $30 million to the co-founders and $60 million to early investors Kalaari Capital and Nexus Venture Partners before the merger and this has run into rough weather, according to a report in the Mint.
Also Read: Snapdeal, Flipkart plan cost cutting measures, says report
Citing a letter written by PremjiInvest to the board of directors of Snapdeal, the business daily said special payments to co-founders and select investors was not kosher, though it did not have problems with a similar handout ($30 million) to Snapdeal employees.
Snapdeal's other investors include Japan's SoftBank, eBay, Alibaba Group, Bessemer Venture Partners, Temasek, BlackRock and Intel Capital from whom it has raised $1.78 billion till date.
SoftBank is reported to be spearheading Snapdeal's merger with Flipkart. The Japanese conglomerate has written off huge amounts from its investments in the firm and cab-hailing app Ola.
Read: Snapdeal, Ola drill $1.4 billion hole in SoftBank's pocket
Flipkart counts HDFC Bank, Accel Partners, Morgan Stanley, IDG Ventures India, Vulcan Capital, DST Global and Qatar Investment Authority among its prominent investors.
Rajesh Ramaiah is the CFO of PremjiInvest while T K Kurien is the Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer (he took over from Prakash Parthasarathy in February this year); both are former Wipro executives.
PremjiInvest's other investments include stake in ETechAces Marketing and Consulting Private Limited (Policybazaar), iD Fresh Food (India) Pvt. Ltd. and Amagi Media Labs Pvt. Ltd.
