Netflix to enter India

Netflix is an American provider of on demand Internet steaming media available to viewers in all of North America, Australia, New Zealand, South America and parts of Europe. The company was established in 1997 and is headquartered in California. It started its subscription based service in 1999 and by 2009; Netflix was offering a collection of 100,000 titles on DVD and had surpassed 10 Million subscribers.

After Singapore based on demand Internet video provider Hooq launched operations in India, Netflix has confirmed up plans to enter India by 2016. This has sent domestic DTH players into a tizzy with some of the major chalking out strategies to diversify beyond television. Netflix is one of the on demands Internet streaming media companies in the world with around 62 Million subscribers.

More than 40 percent of those users are in the US, a market which has become crowded with HBO Now, Sling TV and Sony entering the content streaming segment. Even Hooq, which lets a user stream and download movies and TV shows in India for Rs 199 per month, is a joint venture between Sing Tel, Warner Bros and Sony pictures Television. With 4G about to become a nationwide reality soon, it is no surprise that Netflix wants to enter the market, which is leading the world in mobile Internet user growth.

Monocept Acquires GetMeFood

Monocept, a Hyderabad based Technology Company focused on developing large scale enterprises cloud, mobile and web solutions, has acquired online food ordering startup GetMeFood for an undisclosed amount. GetMeFood is also based in Hyderabad.

GetMeFood has hyper-local delivery system through which food is delivered from over 250 restaurants across the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad by more than 50 delivery boys. Monocept had in late 2014 launched DinerKonnect, a customer engagement and rewards organizer tool for the restaurant and hospitality industry.

GetMeFood will now help the restaurants in growing their business in both dine-in and online ordering space. In the near future, the company has plans to activate multi-channel order management system through its mobile applications for customers, restaurants and its delivery network. The company plans to partner with more than 1,500 restaurants in the next two months. Currently, it is active in 40 neighborhoods in Hyderabad and eight neighborhoods in Secunderabad. Company will also expand their base into other cities.

Simplilearn acquired Market Motive

Bangalore based Simplilearn solutions Pvt. Ltd., the company behind online education and training destination for professional certification courses Simplilearn.com has acquired Silicon Valley based Digital Marketing Training firm Market Motive for $10 Million (Rs 62 crore). It will also help the company make further inroads in the US market.

The deal augments Simplilearn offerings in the booming digital marketing field with courses in social media marketing, digital advertising, web analytics, and marketing automation. Simplilearn, which raised $15 Million in its third round of funding in April to expand its reach in the US, trained more than 400,000 people and offers 250 courses from advanced cloud computing to Six Sigma and Big Data on its site.

With this acquisition, its offerings will include training and certification in digital marketing with courses web analytics and mobile marketing. California based Market Motive will continue to operate as an independent part of Simplilearn. Market Motive specializes in SEO, web analytics, social media marketing, conversion optimization, mobile marketing, PPC advertising, and content marketing.

In April, Simplilearn had secured $15 Million in series C funding by early stage investor Mayfield, with participation from existing investors Kalaari Capital and Helion Venture Partners. It had also secured $10 Million in a series B round of funding in September 2013 from Helion Venture partners and Kalaari Capital. In August 2012, it had bagged around $2 Million in Series A funding from Kalaari Capital.

Aequs acquires T&K Machine

Aequs Pvt. Ltd., a Karnataka based aerospace component manufacturer, has acquired Paris based aerospace component maker T&K Machine Inc., for an undisclosed amount. It will help Aequs to expand its footprint in North American market. T&K Machine has been supplying machined parts and assemblies to the aerospace industry since 1968 and has a wide range of manufacturing capabilities.

Aequs, founded in 1997 as an engineering services firm called QuEST Global Manufacturing based out of the US, started manufacturing aerospace and defence components in 2006. It has a presence in the aero structures (wings, air frames etc.), aero systems (hydraulic valve actuators etc.) and landing gear segments of aerospace manufacturing, and supplies to all major aerospace and aviation companies.

T&K is a US export control approved facility with 65 employees, which will help Aequs in the North American market. In February, Aequs acquired Bangalore based Simulation Designs, which makes high precision components for spacecraft and satellites, for Rs 6 crore. In November last year, Aequs had announced that it is planning to invest about $100 Million in India and abroad by 2020 to expand its geographical reach, add new capabilities and scale up revenues.

Indian aerospace and defence will grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 13.6% to become a $70 Billion market by 2018, according to Grant Thornton India, a consultancy. Aequs will now offer its global aerospace machining platform over one million hours to Boeing and its tier 1 suppliers across the world. 

Square Yards acquires Realizing.in

Gurgaon headquartered Real Estate advisory and brokerage firm Square Yards Consulting Pvt. Ltd., is set to merge with Real Estate research portal Realizing.in. The move is aimed at capturing 15 per cent market share of India’s Real Estate search market in the next few years. As part of the deal, the entire team of Realizing which is owned by IDW Technology Pvt. Ltd., would join square yards.

The Realizing.in portal would be rechristened as Square yards and the group would continue to build research capabilities under the Realizing brand. The ultimate aim is to evolve Realizing into a big data analytics platform for global real estate. Square yards, which operates a portal by the same name has been evolved in real estate transactions worth $350 Million since starting operations.

Square yards offers solutions for property related needs. It caters to residential projects, hotels projects, student accommodation, and mall development. Square yards had raised $6 Million in a pre-series round of funding from a clutch of unnamed investors in May this year. The company claims to have clocked revenue of Rs 38 crore in its first year of operations. Realizing.in offers services such as city heat maps, carpet area and built up area calculations for property transactions. It also helps users with key property related decision based on automated algorithms.

India’s online property search market has evolved radically over the last few years. The leading companies in this space are Softbank backed Housing, News Corp backed PropTiger and Tiger Global, Accel Partners and Google Capital backed CommonFloor besides the legacy players. Times Internet promoted Magic Bricks, Info Edge 99acres.com and Chennai based India Property. 

Snapdeal acquires Letsgomo Labs

Online marketplace Snapdeal.com had acquired Letsgomo Labs, a mobility solutions company. The move is aimed at strengthening its position in mobile commerce as online consumers in India increasingly choose to shop over their phones. Letsgomo was founded by Manav Kamboj and Vikas Banga. Its 76 member team will join Snapdeal and strengthen the organization mobile technology capabilities.

Letsgomo provides mobile technology solutions, design and strategy, besides consulting businesses in conceptualization of applications and mobile sites to implementation and hosting of the mobile platform. The company also works with leading e-commerce companies to help them strengthen their mobile capabilities.

In April, Snapdeal acquired mobile recharge service Freecharge in one of the biggest ever deals in the country start up domain, making Snapdeal one of the largest mobile commerce companies in India. In May, Snapdeal also announced the acquisition of Hyderabad based mobile technology company Martmobi for an undisclosed amount. The platform will help Snapdeal strengthen its mobile platform for sellers.

Snapdeal, promoted by New Delhi based Jasper Infotech Pvt. Ltd., currently gets 75% of its total orders via mobile based transactions. Some of the investors in Snapdeal include Ratan Tata, Softbank, Blackrock, and Temasek, eBay Inc., Premji Invest, Intel Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners.

BigBasket acquires Delyver

Founded in December 2011, BigBasket is an online grocery store. BigBasket has acquired logistics startup Delyver in a cash and stock transaction to bolster its capacity to deliver fast and compete with agile players in the segment like Grofers, PepperTap and LocalBanya. BigBasket will employ Delyver orders in 90 minutes.

BigBasket is likely to leverage Delyver expertise in hyper local delivery to roll out one hour delivery services in the six cities in which it is present i.e. Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Delhi, Pune, and Mumbai. It was a cash and stock deal with 50% of the amount being paid in cash. Delyver will continue to operate as a separate business while Big Basket will deploy its fleet of two-wheelers to facilitate timely delivery.

Delyver will scale to the 50 cities as and when Big Basket enters a new market. Delyver specializes in delivering orders within one hour from stores across categories such as food, vegetables and flowers. It will continue with its existing categories instead of restricting itself to just groceries. The hyper local avenue is witnessing a surge of innovations as more and more players are entering the field.

With technology snowballing or advancing to higher levels, the scope for these players is rendered wide open; the potential of this segment is estimated to be so high that even the big fish in the market have registered themselves to compete. While Amazon India has already made an entry into the Indian market with its Kirana Now, Ola has started its pilot project to deliver groceries.