Snapdeal Partners with the Government of Andhra Pradesh and University of California, Berkeley for Smart Village Project

• Enables digital access for small artisans in pilot project

• Part of the government’s aim to digitize 10,000 villages in the state

Snapdeal, India’s largest online marketplace announced a partnership with University of California, Berkeley for the Andhra Pradesh government’s Smart Village Project. With the objective of discovering economical and infrastructural barriers faced by artisans in these villages, UC Berkeley and Snapdeal are aiming to create viable solutions through digitization and new-age services.

Under the partnership, Snapdeal will provide local handloom weavers, direct market access to buyers across the country, through its platform. Products crafted by these artisans and associations will be curated and listed on a special page on Snapdeal. The company has currently on-boarded the handloom association of Meri Podu village as a seller.  

Talking about this initiative, Vishal Chadha, SVP, Business Team said, “We are proud to partner with the Government of Andhra Pradesh and UC Berkeley, enabling digital access and generating a world of commercial opportunities for small artisans. Working with a vibrant base of 3 lakh sellers of various sizes, we continue to drive inclusive growth and in-sync development. Through this collaboration, we aim to create employment and growth opportunities for local artisans, enhancing the reach of indigenously manufactured products to newer geographies and extending their legacy.”

About Snapdeal

Snapdeal’s vision is to create India’s most reliable and frictionless commerce ecosystem that creates life-changing experiences for buyers and sellers. In February 2010, Kunal Bahl along with Rohit Bansal, started Snapdeal. Today Snapdeal is India’s largest online marketplace, with the widest assortment of 65 million plus products across 1000+ categories from over 125,000 regional, national, and international brands and retailers. With millions of users and more than 300,000 sellers, Snapdeal is the shopping destination for Internet users across the country, delivering to 6000+ cities and towns in India. In its journey till now, Snapdeal has partnered with several global marquee investors and individuals such as SoftBank, BlackRock, Temasek, Foxconn, Alibaba, eBay Inc., Premji Invest, Intel Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Mr. Ratan Tata, among others

For further information visit: www.snapdeal.com