Tata Group to acquire GrocerMax

The Tata Group is buying out the management team and technology infrastructure of Gurgaon based GrocerMax to enter the online grocery business as consumers increasingly place orders for their supplies over the internet.

The new team will help set up the online platform for Trent Hypermarket, an equal joint venture between Tata and British retailer Tesco that will rival Amazon and Bigbasket in the nascent yet rapidly growing segment. GrocerMax will shut down its business in Gurgaon because the Tata group's grocery business is not present in North India. The Tata Group runs three formats under the Star Banner – Dailies, Market and Hyper and has around 42 stores.

For Tesco, the world’s third largest retailer has nearly 6,800 stores globally, its online business earns roughly 3 Billion in sales and is one of the rare such ventures that’s profitable. But the opportunity offered by the $500 Billion retail market is attractive for any player, foreign or local. Food and grocery account for almost 50% of the overall retail basket in India, although general merchandise, personal and home products fill up a bulk of the retailer’s profit pool.

Experts feel omnichannel retail offers consumers more ways to shop and interact with a retailer. GrocerMax is a hybrid platform for grocery that keeps only 10% inventory, sourcing the rest from supermarkets and provisional stores in real time. The online grocery space in India, which has seen a minor shakeout over the past year, has attracted more players as well. While LocalBanya and PepperTap suspended operations, Grofers shut in multiple cities.

Diageo to acquire Tequila brand Casamigos

Diageo Plc. Agreed to acquire fast growing Tequila brand Casamigos, co-founded four years ago by George Clooney, for as much as $1 Billion. The deal expands the London based distiller’s lineup in a fast growing category, where it already owns the Don Julio, DeLeon and Peligroso brands.

The purchase will be Diageo’s biggest since its $3.2 billion acquisition of United Spirits Ltd in 2014. After that deal boosted its presence in India, the owner of the Smirnoff brand is moving to strengthen its US business, which has returned to growth after a difficult stretch following a slowdown in vodka sales. Meanwhile, tequila volume in the US more than doubled from 2002 through 2015, according to the distilled spirits council.

Clooney, better known for his role in movies such as “Ocean’s Eleven” and as a pitchman for Nespresso coffee, created Casamigos in 2013 with developer Mike Meldman and entertainment entrepreneur Rande Gerber. They got in on the tequila boom after tasting together in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, where Clooney and Gerber had built vacation homes. Now they’re cashing out with an initial consideration of $700 million that could be followed by a further potential $300 million based on a performance-linked earn-out over 10 years.

Casamigos, packaged in clear bottles with Clooney’s signature adorning the label, is distilled by an undisclosed partner in Mexico. Casamigos is sold in three expressions, at $45 to $55: Blanco, which is clear, Reposado, which is golden-coloured, and Anejo, dark amber variant and the brand oldest. The brand has been marketed with pictures of the founders enjoying it, captioned with the slogan, “Brought to you by those who drink it.”

Airbnb to buy Trooly

Airbnb Inc. is purchasing background check startup Trooly Inc. in an effort to protect its guests and hosts from bad actors. Los Altos, California based Trooly has been helping Airbnb authenticate user identities since 2015. By analyzing data from public records, social media and other sources, Trooly technology could help Airbnb track various customer violations, such as side deals between guests and hosts.

Since starting in 2008, Airbnb has struggled to control fraudulent listings from people posing as property owners. Some Airbnb guests have also been found to sidestep the company by finding an attractive listing on Airbnb website, then contacting the hosts—usually via social media—and offering to pay them directly. Airbnb takes as much as a 12% fee from its guests. Hosts are charged a 3% fee on listings that are booked. In most cases, the company is also required to charge guests a local tax, usually 3 percent, though the tax rates vary by city, state and country.

Trooly was started in 2014, but waited until last year to raise $10 million in its first round of financing, led by Bain Capital Ventures and Milliways Ventures. Airbnb is purchasing Trooly intellectual property and engineering team, according to people familiar with the situation. The home-rental site is expected to close the deal on Monday when Trooly will shut down operations as an independent company, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.

The acquisition comes at a time of expansion for Airbnb. The privately held company, valued at about $31 billion, has more than 3 million home and apartment-rental listings and is expanding into new product categories including travel “experiences.” In February, Airbnb purchased Canadian property management company Luxury Retreats. San Francisco-based Airbnb turned a profit for the first time in the second half of 2016.

TVS Group acquires CheckGaadi.com

TVS & Sons Group has acquired Bengaluru headquartered CheckGaadi.com, a provider of vehicle inspection technology and CRM solutions. CheckGaadi was founded in January 2015. The startup provides hassle free “vehicle inspection services” for 2-wheelers and 4-wheelers vehicles. It also provides bike-servicing on its platform.

With this move, proprietary technology of CheckGaadi will be transferred to TVS. It will continue business operations as part of TVS. CheckGaadi scaled up to a team size of 30 across 11 major cities serving close to 75,000 customers till date. The CheckGaadi customer engagement solution relies on predictive analytics and machine learning algorithms.

It makes use of vehicle health information to make predictions about its future and automatically determines the best time and context to connect with the customer. On the other hand, the TVS Group is a leading supplier of automotive components. The automobile market in India is pegged at $125 Billion. Out of which, $100 Billion is the estimated share of automobile sale and remaining $25 Billion including services. It is expected to grow at a rate of about 10% to a whopping $225 Billion by 2020.

In May 2017, Mumbai-based online automobile classifieds platform, CarTrade’s parent company MXC Solutions, acquired vehicle inspection and valuation venture Adroit Inspection in an all-cash deal. In June 2017, Gurugram - based used car marketplace Spinny raised $1 Mn Seed funding led by Blume Ventures, Indian Angel Network, and FreeCharge. Other startups that work in this segment apart from CheckGaadi include Droom, CarWale, MahindraFirstChoice, Carnation, CarDekho, CarTrade, along with some classifieds players such as Quikr and OLX.

Amazon to buy Whole Foods

Amazon.com Inc. will acquire Whole Foods Market Inc. for $13.7 Billion, a bombshell of a deal that catapults the e-commerce giant into the supermarket business with hundreds of store across the US.

Amazon agreed to pay $42 a share in cash for the organic-food chain, including debt, a roughly 27% premium to the stock price at Thursday’s close. The deal sends a shockwave across both the online and brick-and-mortar industries, uniting two brands that weren’t seen as obvious partners. For Amazon, the deal is more about getting a distribution network for groceries. It has spent years trying to break into delivering groceries, but hasn’t been as successful as in other categories.

The transaction also may help Amazon sideline Instacart Inc., a startup that has delivered grocery orders from Whole Foods stores in more than 20 states and Washington, D.C. Amazon’s biggest acquisition announced to date came in 2014, when it agreed to buy video-game service Twitch Interactive Inc. for $970 million in cash.

Millions of people love Whole Foods Market because they offer the best natural and organic foods, and they make it fun to eat healthy. The takeover is slated to be completed in the second half of the year, with Whole Foods’ headquarters remaining in Austin, Texas.