NEW DELHI: Jasper Infotech, which owns and operates online marketplace Snapdeal .com, has raised fresh capital, estimated at about $500 million, in a new round led by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group and Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn , tech news startup Re/Code claimed late on Sunday. Citing unnamed sources, the Vox Media-owned news outlet also said Snapdeal’s largest stakeholder, Japanese internet, media and telecom giant SoftBank , has also participated in the round.The news website did not provide any details relating to valuation or the stakes picked up by the new investors. However, when contacted by ET, a Snapdeal spokesperson denied the developments, and called it “speculation.”Both Alibaba Group and Foxconn, best known as a manufacturer of Apple’s iPhones, had been in protracted negotiations with New Delhi-headquartered Snapdeal to invest in the latter, as they looked to grab a stronger foothold in the country’s fast-burgeoning consumer economy.In February this year, ET was the first to report that Jack Ma-led Alibaba Group had started negotiations to invest in the company. In May, ET also reported that Foxconn too had entered discussions to participate in Snapdeal’s upcoming round of funding , which could potentially value the company at about $5 billion.However, a mix of valuation mismatches and increasingly stringent performance-led metrics being demanded by potential investors, have led to a delayed closure of the transaction.Snapdeal, along with Bengaluru-based rival Flipkart , have raised nearly $3 billion among themselves in 2014, while Jeff Bezos-led Amazon has committed to pump in $2 billion to its Indian operations, the third major ecommerce player in the country.However, a clutch of new players, led by Paytm , have also begun to challenge the incumbents, especially in the fund-raising drives.Earlier this year, Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led Paytm announced a $575-million round of funding, led by Ant Financial, an affiliate of the Alibaba Group.Competition is only bound to increase as the country’s online retailing industry grows in size to an estimated $50 billion by 2020 from $3 billion in 2014.“Within the next 12 months we will also see conglomerates like Tatas, Reliance and Aditya Birla Group throwing their hats in the ring in a much more forceful manner,” Arvind Singhal, founder of retail consultancy Technopak told ET in an earlier conversation. “This doesn't give much of a headroom to current players to slow down their spend on marketing, infrastructure and discounting. Therefore the need to raise more funds will increase rather than decrease.”