Snapdeal Ltd, the Indian e-commerce startup backed by SoftBank Group Corp enters into the race of initial public offering, adding to the rush of tech companies looking to debut on the country’s exchanges amid a record breaking stock market rally.

Snapdeal, founded in 2010 by Kunal Bahl and childhood friend Rohit Bansal began as a deals website before expanding. In 2017, after struggles done by the company,

Masayoshi Son's SoftBank, one of its biggest backers, pushed the founders to merge with archrival Flipkart. Bahl and Bansal ultimately decided not to proceed with the deal, requiring them to focus on reducing their cash burn. Snap deal has improved itself to stand apart from its bigger competitors and focus on value driven e-commerce.

The New Delhi headquartered company plans to raise 12.5 billion rupees($165 million)through the sale of new shares according to its draft red herring prospectus or DRHP, filed with the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

The existing stockholders including Soft Bank plan to sell as many as 30.77 million secondary shares.

Snapdeal’s IPO, targeted for early next year, comes after many of India market debuts. Food delivery pioneer Zomato Ltd set off the rush to market followed by successful offerings from the likes of FSN E-Commerce Ventures Ltd. which operates the Nykaa beauty business.