Amazon acquired Health Navigator

Amazon.com Inc. has acquired Health Navigator, a medical technology startup, in an effort to bolster its health care offerings for employees.

The start-up will be wrapped into a clinic for workers that launched last month at the company’s Seattle-based headquarters. Called Amazon Care, the program offers virtual and in-person consultations, and delivery of prescriptions to employees’ offices and homes.

The company’s ambitions in health care have been the subject of fevered speculation in the industry and among investors well versed in Amazon’s record of disrupting established industries. Amazon has partnered with Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. to launch Haven, a non-profit working on ways to halt the rise in employee health-care costs.

Separately, the company is working to build on nascent businesses that sell to health-care providers and consumers. Amazon last year bought PillPack, an online pharmacy. It also sells office and medical supplies through its Amazon Business program.

SHL to acquire Aspiring Minds

US-based talent evaluation company SHL announced its plans to acquire Gurgaon based job credentialing platform Aspiring Minds for an undisclosed amount. The deal is expected to close in November and cost somewhere between $80-$100 Mn largely all-in-cash.

Through this acquisition, SHL plans to infuse Aspiring Minds’ artificial intelligence (AI) technology with SHL’s portfolio and leverage the “rigorous science to enable the technical, emerging and leadership talent required” for over 10K customers. Some of the big names in its companies clientele include e-commerce giant Amazon, the telecom operator Airtel, IT company Wipro and US industrial conglomerate Honeywell.

Founded in 2008 by Himanshu Aggarwal and Varun Aggarwal, Aspiring Minds is an employability evaluation and certification company that helps institutions and companies hire the right candidate. The company also allows candidates to take employability test to find the ‘right’ jobs through its flagship product AMCAT. AMCAT is said to serve over two million candidates every year.

The HRTech startup relies on its state-of-the-art, adaptive assessment technology, and machine learning algorithms to allow adaptive, standardized and reliable measurement of generic employability skills, i.e. language, cognitive, behavior, among other functional skills. Currently, the company serves over 3000 clients across the US, China, Philippines, Middle East, and Southeast Asia, among others.

Mastercard acquires SessionM

Mastercard has entered into an agreement to acquire SessionM, a U.S. based technology company. SessionM customer engagement and loyalty platform empowers the world’s most innovative brands – including retailers, airlines, restaurants and CPG companies to forge stronger and more profitable consumer relationships.

The addition of SessionM will enhance Mastercard’s ability to help brands around the world deliver personalized, real-time offers and comprehensive campaign measurement based on robust, data-driven insights. Mastercard is constantly innovating and investing in bring fresh value to brands globally—helping them build and enhance their customer relationships and, ultimately, grow their business.

Many businesses are seeking to reinvent their loyalty programs to better serve increasingly digital consumers. SessionM helps brands create and manage consumer engagement and loyalty programs with industry-leading technology that powers a complete loyalty solution — from data management to campaign execution to program measurement.

Over the past decade, Mastercard has made a number of investments to advance its data-driven services for retailers and other brands. This includes the acquisition of Applied Predictive Technologies, a test and learns analytics tool that allows brands to prove the real impact of marketing, product, and other decisions. Mastercard has also expanded its market-leading consulting program and enhanced its marketing services, executing omnichannel campaigns on behalf of customers.