India-based e-commerce company Snapdeal has received Rs1.13bn ($17.5m) in emergency funding from Nexus Venture Partners and the company’s founders, according to Mint.

The transaction comes ahead of an expected acquisition by Snapdeal’s rival Flipkart, for which a non-binding term sheet agreement was signed last week.

Snapdeal, which operates an e-commerce platform but has struggled to compete in a market now largely dominated by Flipkart and Amazon India, has raised some $1.7bn in capital from backers including telecoms firm SoftBank,…