Jugnoo acquires Bistro and Yelo

India’s Jugnoo, a ten month old start up that has apps for both auto rickshaw rides and food delivery had acquired Bistro, a restaurant discovery app and Yelo, a services marketplace. The deal size of both the start-ups combined is said to be worth $1 Million in cash and stock.

With this acquisition, Jugnoo wants to strengthen its position in the hyper local service. Bistro, an eighteen month old startup, provides a DIY Platform for broadcasting offers and managing loyalty for restaurants. The app helps build, execute, and monitor customer engagement and brand loyalty campaigns. Yelo, a one year old startup offers a networking app for freelancers and part timers.

Jugnoo runs three apps- Jugnoo Autos, Jugnoo Meals, and Jugnoo Fatafat. The Jugnoo Autos app, started in November 2014, is like Uber for auto rickshaw rides. The other service is Jugnoo Meals, launched in February, which offers home delivery of freshly home cooked food with a rotational menu. The meals are cooked by Jugnoo in house chefs and are delivered within 30 minutes of placing the order.

Jugnoo launched Jugnoo Fatafat in April, a hyper local commerce marketplace for home delivery of fresh groceries. Earlier, Jugnoo acquired cab aggregator Bookmycab to enter the taxi aggregator space in bigger cities like Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Chennai, Bengaluru, and Pune. After the acquisition, Jugnoo managed to cross 10,000 daily transactions. The startup secured $5 Million in seed funding from Snow Leopard and Paytm three months ago. It competes with Ola and Uber.

Helpchat acquires Niffler

Coraza Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which operates instant messenger based personal assistant platform Helpchat, has acquired Mumbai based mobile app Niffler that helps discover deals and discounts from brick and mortar sales. Amount of deal was not disclosed and entire team of Niffler will now join Helpchat.

The acquisition will aid Helpchat in expanding to Pune and Mumbai faster as Niffler already has a presence in these key markets. Niffler team has expertise on community driven experiences and retailer supported commerce. Niffler has vision of enabling consumers to get more done through chat based personal assistance.

Acquisition will also help Helpchat accelerate the growth of its personal assistant search across the areas of offline commerce and deals based on user intent. Founded in 2014, Niffler helps user find deals and discounts from offline merchants across categories including food and drinks, spas and salons, apparel and home décor. It had recently introduced chat-based interactions between consumers and local business.

Niffler had raised a funding worth $1 Million in March 2015 from SAIF Partners. Helpchat, which rebranded itself from online complaints redressal company Akosha in July, currently offers information and assistance for various chores, ranging from phone recharges to tech support and travel bookings. It now also plans to introduce payment options as part of its service.

The company raised around Rs. 100 crore from Sequoia Capital in May this year. It has over 600 employees with offices in Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai. The company says it handles 50,000 requests a day with 30% coming from Bengaluru.

Practo acquires Qikwell

Practo Technologies Pvt. Ltd, India’s largest doctor discovery platform, has acquired smaller rival Qikwell Technologies Pvt. Ltd, for an undisclosed amount in a cash and stock deal. This is Practo fourth acquisition in six months. Practo tries to penetrate deeper into the enterprise segment, especially hospitals.

With this acquisition, Practo now aims to service 40 Million appointments every year. Founded in 2011, Qikwell is backed by SAIF partners with an investment of Rs. 18.3 crore. The Bengaluru based technology start up is a doctor discovery platform that offers real-time appointment bookings. The company currently has over 6,000 doctors listed on its platform.

It has employee strength of more than 100 people and has branches in Chennai, Hyderabad, and Delhi. It plans to expand to Mumbai, Pune and Kolkata in the coming months. Qikwell is Practo fourth acquisition in six months. In April, it acquired FitHo Wellness Services Pvt. Ltd. It also bought Mumbai based Genii to strengthen its technology infrastructure last month. Two weeks ago, Practo acquired Insta Health Solutions.

Practo recently raised $90 Million from Tencent, Belgian venture capital firm Sofina, Sequoia Capital Global Equities, Google Capital, Altimeter Capital and Yuri Milner and existing investors Sequoia India and Matrix Partners. The company has raised $125 Million since its launch in 2008. The $90 Million round is the biggest for a domestic healthcare startup.

Flipkart buys back logistic arm

India’s largest e-commerce firm Flipkart Ltd has bought backs its logistics business from WS Retail Services Pvt. Ltd., the largest seller on its platform, and a company with which it has close links, in an effort to simplify its structure ahead of a possible share sale a few years later.

The acquisition has been made through a new entity called Instakart Services Pvt. Ltd. The deal leaves WS Retail with only a trading business, which is also gradually being wound down as Flipkart shifts to a market place model from an inventory led one. Flipkart wanted to buy back the logistic arm as it is preparing for an IPO over the next few years and wants to make its complex structure simpler.

Deal was at fair value to prove arm’s length distance was maintained between Flipkart and WS Retail. Since Flipkart logistics arm was moved to WS Retail in 2012, the business would have significantly increased in value. Since India bans FDI in online retail, Flipkart has devised a complicated maze of many inter-connected and some purportedly independent entities that receive the massive amounts of money it raises to build an integrated e-commerce business.

WS Retail is one of the most important entities in this structure. To get around FDI rules, Flipkart created WS Retail in 2009 as a seller on its site. As part of a complex arrangement, WS Retail bought goods from Flipkart India Pvt. Ltd, the B2B arm of the main group holding company and sold the same goods to customers on Flipkart site. WS Retail also owned and ran Flipkart key logistics business called e-kart that delivered products to customers.

Housing.com acqui-hires Plat, BigBHK

Property website Housing.com, run by Locon Solutions Pvt. Ltd., announced two acqui-hires for an undisclosed amount to boost its supply product portfolio. Acqui-hiring is the process by which one company acquires another to gain access to its employees. In such an acquisition, the acquiring company may or may not have any interest in the target company’s products and services.

Housing.com bought Plat, an online network for agents enabling them to share real estate inventories and BigBHK, property management software (PMS) targeted at rental suppliers. With these acqui-hires, Housing.com acquires quality talent from premier institutions such as IIT Delhi and BITS Pilani. Softbank and other investors in the Mumbai based realty website are trying to cut costs, restructure businesses and boost revenues as part of a plan to turn the firm profitable.

Housing.com has hired restructuring advisory firm Alvarez and Marsal Holdings, LLC. The hiring of Alvarez and Marsal stems from the need to reorient the firm’s strategy following months of turmoil between investors and Yadav over the running of Housing.com. The acqui-hire will empower partners and consumers to better manage their property portfolio ensuring convenience and transparency.

Plat will help Housing.com to help drive efficiencies in communications and operations such as posting leads and enhancing property showcase experience, thereby closing deals faster. While BigBHK helps the firm to help its partners to manage their property portfolios with a comprehensive web based property management solution. BigBHK runs successful operations across Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune and is soon entering into Chennai. 

Suvidhaa Infoserve acquires AasaanPay

Payments services major Suvidhaa Infoserve had acquired AasaanPay, the first Indian mPOS (mobile point of Sale) platform. The mPOS Technology enables debit or credit card transactions and cash withdrawal on the spot or on the move using mobile phones and helps reduce the cost of merchant touch points.

Suvidhaa Infoserve, a $15 Billion entity plans to leverage the mPOS technology for tapping the utilization of over 15 crore cards issued under the Jan Dhan Yojana by the government and another 50 crore debit cards issued by various banks. Suvidhaa was founded by Mumbai based entrepreneur Paresh Rajde in 2007 with angel funding by construction tycoon Shapoorji Pallonji Mistry.

Its investors include Norvest Venture Partners, World Bank Group’s International Finance Corp, Mitsui & Co and Reliance Capital. As part of the deal, which size was not disclosed, Hyderabad based AasaanPay Crore core technology team, led by Chief Technology officer Pruthvi Sabbu. Suvidhaa will fast track its plans to penetrate small merchants and tap bottom of pyramid customers, while taking the card-based transaction size to Rs. 500 crore per month from Rs 15 crore currently.

Mobile payments business in India is expected to grow 200 times in seven years to over $3 Trillion. The mobile payments will account for 10% of the total payments in India which was just 0.1% in financial year 2014-15. Suvidhaa has already partnered with Axis Bank for launching India’s first Aadhar based e-KYC Prepaid Card and for the mPOS with State Bank of India (SBI).

8K Miles acquires NexAge

Public listed cloud solutions provider 8K Miles Software Services Ltd, through its US arm 8K Miles Software Services Inc. has acquired NexAge Technologies USA Inc. for $3 Million in a cash and stock deal. The transaction also includes the existing debt of NexAge.

NexAge is one of the regulatory compliance and technology solutions companies in the US for the life sciences and pharmaceuticals industry. The agreement signed by the companies includes acquisition of intellectual property, technical solutions, client contracts and employees. Through this acquisition, 8K Miles will get access to the network of enterprise customers and strategic partners acquired by NexAge during the last decade.

8K Miles will boost their world class CloudExRx solution that has been designed to address qualification and validation compliance for applications running on the cloud securely with a purpose of empowering pharmaceutical and life sciences enterprises to use cloud services across value and supply chains. 8K Miles is an public listed firm in India with an operation base in Chennai.

8k Miles provides SMAC (social, mobile, analytics, and cloud) solutions for connectivity between consumers, SMBs, enterprises, and government agencies. Its flagship solutions ExIAM provides capabilities for user management, user provisioning and access requests for end users. Recently, the company acquired Cintel Systems Inc. a US based mobile application development and Services Company. In March, it acquired SaaS startup and in November 2014, it had acquired SERJ Solutions.

Hero Cycles acquires Firefox Bikes

Hero Cycles has acquired Firefox Bikes as part of strategy to cement its position in the fast growing premium cycling segment in India. As part of the deal, Firefox Bikes divested their entire equity stake to Hero Cycles in all cash transaction Hero Cycles. The aim is to provide customers with world class products at every price range as per their fast evolving tastes and requirements.

Through this acquisition, Hero Cycles will further expand its presence in all major categories of bicycles in India through its various brands such as Hero Cycles, UT, Firefox and UT Edge. As part of the deal, Hero Cycles has acquired Firefox brand of cycles, accessories and spares along with exclusive distribution rights of ‘Trek’ and other global brands.

Both companies have mutually agreed that Firefox Bikes will continue to have its distinct brand identity and remain a separate business entity post the acquisition. This deal will also help Firefox to expand its marketing visibility and acquire an aggressive approach in reaching out to our prospective customers.

The premium cycle segment in India has been growing at 25% CAGR over the past many years. It has emerged as one of the fastest growing segments in the market by closing sales of more than two lakh units a year. Currently, the company sells over 70 different models of Firefox bikes and 25 Trek Models through a network of 160 companies owned and franchise outlets. It also has tie ups with international brands such as Tern, Shimano, Saris, Finish Line, Kryptonite, Super-B and Slime.

Microsoft acquires Double Labs

Microsoft has added to its stable of Android Apps with the acquisition of Double Labs, the makers of Echo Notification Lockscreen, a popular app on Google’s mobile platform that helps user control the notifications they see. Echo replaces the default Android Lock screen with a new interface for handling push notifications.

The app’s marquee feature is its ability to categorize and sort user’s incoming notifications and only wake their phone for high priority messages. In addition, users can tell the lock screen to remind them of notifications at a later time or in a different place, so they can postpone seeing notifications about personal emails until they get home. It’s not the company’s first foray into Android Lock screens.

Microsoft’s garage division put out the Next Lock Screen app last year, which is another take on replacing the default experience for users of Google’s mobile platform. The acquisition, which took place in August, gives Microsoft another beachhead on Android, but it is also aimed at getting Microsoft access to the personalization technology that powers the lock screen’s features. The work with Next and Echo will translate the information the company will use to improve products like Office and Windows 10.

By acquiring Echo, Microsoft is picking up more information that it can use to power products like its Cortana virtual assistant, which is currently available in public beta for Android users. Microsoft has a variety of other Android utilities available including an app launcher currently in private beta, a voice search tool for Bing and an app that provides information about air quality to users in China. 

Practo acquires Insta Health

India’s largest online doctor discovery company Practo Technologies Pvt. Ltd has acquired Hospital information management solution provider Insta Health Solutions for $12 Million. It is Practo third acquisition after fitness solutions firm FitHo and product outsourcing firm Genii in the past six months.

The acquisition opens up an additional revenue stream for Practo and helps the company expand its presence among hospitals. The company at present generates revenue from Practo Ray, a doctor facing practice management software sold as a subscription based, software as a service product, and Practo Reach, a sponsored listing service for hospitals and clinics. Listing on Practo is free for products, while the company does not charge consumers for searches.

With this acquisition, Practo now gets access to more than 500 hospitals across 15 countries, including in Southeast Asia, West Asia and Africa, which use the company information management software. This adds on to Practo repertoire of software products for medical establishments. Insta Health Solutions will continue to operate as a separate entity.

Practo claims to facilitate 10 Million searches every month. There are more than 200,000 doctors, 5,000 diagnostic centres and 10,000 hospitals listed on its platform. To maintain its market dominance, Practo is making acquisitions and launching several products in new business. It is also fast expanding in International Markets and plans to expand to 10 countries. The company has also raised about $125 Million since its launch in 2008. 

JK Group to buy Kesoram Tyre Unit

BK Birla Group controlled Kesoram Industries Ltd had concluded a deal to sell its Tyre manufacturing unit near Haridwar in Uttarakhand to JK Tyre and Industries Ltd for Rs. 2195 crore. Based on Kesoram previous disclosures the company is estimated to have spent around Rs. 3000 crore to build the factory. It was commissioned in 2008-09.

This factory, which has the capacity to produce up to 600 tonnes of tyre a day or about 4.4 Million truck tyres annually, was carved out of Kesoram and transferred to a subsidiary Cavendish Industries Ltd earlier this year. Kesoram owns 99% of Cavendish. The factory was at that time valued at Rs. 2800 crore an indication of what the company was looking to raise from its sale. The revised valuation of the unit stands at Rs. 2195 crore.

There were 4-5 interested parties, JK Tyre was the only company that made a firm price bid, and stuck to its price, which was lower than Kesoram expectations. The deal will strengthen Kesoram balance sheet, adding that the cash will be used to repay debts. The BK Birla Group Company will remain invested in the tyre business. It has a less efficient unit near Balasore in Odisha, which is 23 years old now.

Besides tyres, Kesoram has interests in cement and rayon, which continues to report growth. Kesoram produces around 7.5 Million tonnes of cement, and the segment generates about Rs. 750 crore in operating profit annually. It also said it is expanding its rayon business.

Livspace.com acquires YoFloor

Home Interior Designs E-commerce Pvt. Ltd, which owns online home design start-up Livspace, has acquired YoFloor, a mobile platform that offers a virtual trial room for home design, for an undisclosed amount. This is Livspace third acquisition. It acquired curated online network of Interior designers Dwll.in in May and online community and marketplace for designers and consumers DezignUp in March.

The company also raised $8 Million in an internal funding round from existing investors Helion Ventures Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners and Jungle Ventures last month. Before that, it raised $4.6 Million in a Series a funding round in December 2014. YoFloor was incubated at Mango Technologies. It offers 3D visualization tools which can be used by buyers and designers to facilitate the visualization of a look or home design before a purchase is done.

As part of the acquisition, the founders and the core team of YoFloor will join Livspace. Livspace was founded in 2012 by former senior executives of Google Inc., Myntra, and founder of Architectural Design consultancy Space Matrix. It competes with Sequoia Capital funded HomeLane.com, as well as bigger furniture e-retailers, Pepperfry and Urban Ladder. Livspace also offers readymade home design solutions and connects customers with interior designers.

BlackBerry acquires Good Technology

Canada’s BlackBerry Ltd said it will buy rival mobile software provider Good Technology Corp for $425 Million to boost its ability to help corporate clients manage smartphones running on different operating systems. The cash deal may help BlackBerry a one-time smartphone pioneer win new customers for its service business.

BlackBerry shifts focus to device management software for enterprise customers. More than half the devices running on Good’s systems are Apple Inc. products such as the iPhone. Company expects to realize about $160 Million in revenue from the acquisition in the first year after the deal closes.

BlackBerry has recently made acquisitions to expand its services business. Earlier they had announced deals for Secusmart, Movirtu, and WatchDox. BlackBerry has always been about delivering secure mobile solutions. It’s easy to forget now that BlackBerry was once the undisputed leader in enterprise mobility, but when Apple and Android came along, BlackBerry quickly lost its dominant position.

Overall, this looks like it could be a good deal for both companies, giving Good Technologies a soft landing without having to risk the dangers of IPOing in an increasingly hostile market, while filling out BlackBerry growing security platform without putting out a huge amount of cash.

Cipla to acquire two US Pharma Companies

Cipla EU Ltd will acquire two US-based companies, InvaGen Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Exelan Pharmaceuticals Inc., for $550 Million to strengthen its presence in world’s largest drug market. The combined revenue from these transactions is more than $200 Million for the year ended December and more than $225 Million in the 12 Months to June.

The all-cash transactions will give the company scale in the US generics market through a wide ranging product portfolio in central nervous system, cardiovascular system, anti-effectives, diabetes, as well as other value added generics. This is Cipla second largest acquisition in its 80 years of existence in 2013. Cipla acquired 100% stake in South African arm Cipla Medpro South Africa Ltd for Rs. 2707 crore.

With these acquisitions, the US now will have sales of $400 Million, accounting for almost 16-17% of its estimated earnings. InvaGen Pharmaceuticals has 40 ANDAs, 32 marketed products and 30 pipeline products expected to be approved over the next four years. In addition, InvaGen has filed five first to file products, which represent a market size of $8 Billion in revenue by 2018.

The acquisition of Exelan Pharmaceuticals provides Cipla access to the government and institutional market in the US. Generic Pharmaceuticals make up 80% of the prescriptions dispensed in the US but account for just 27% of total drug spending. The US generic drug market is estimated at a yearly $35 Billion.

Snapdeal Acquires Reduce Data

India’s second largest e-commerce firm Snapdeal.com has acquired Reduce Data, a US-based advertising platform, for an undisclosed amount as online retailers bet on advertising to become a popular key business. Snapdeal has signed an acquihire deal, a deal done primarily for expertise of the acquired firm staff.

Reduce Data helps brands to deliver advertising strategies for consumers across platforms and devices. The company claims that its platform leverages artificial intelligence, real-time data and other tools, delivering high return on investment for advertising campaigns. The company currently has customers across US, UK and India.

Most large e-commerce firms, including Flipkart and Snapdeal, are trying to build large advertisement sales teams and improving their technology to show ads based on data collected on the shopping habits of millions of Indians. Ad revenues are expected to provide a much needed boost to margins for e-retailers and create an additional large revenue stream for them.

Flipkart acquired AdIQuity Technologies, a mobile advertising technology firm in March in a move to improve its ad platform. Globally too e-commerce firms get significant chunk of revenues from ads. Acquisition of Reduce Data by Snapdeal is the company latest push into strengthening its advertising business. The company introduced ads on platform in May 2014.

Flipkart acquires FX Mart

India’s largest e-commerce firm Flipkart has bought payment services start-up FX Mart Pvt. Ltd, which holds a prepaid wallet license, so as to add a payment service on its platform and on that of its unit Myntra. Singapore registered Flipkart Payments Pvt. Ltd, paid Rs. 45.4 crore for a majority stake in FX Mart and two senior Flipkart executives also joined the board of FX Mart.

FX Mart owns a coveted prepaid license issued by Reserve Bank of India. The license will allow Flipkart to offer a digital wallet on its app and avoid paying a cut to external wallet providers. The license can also potentially help Flipkart increase the proportion of cashless transactions. A majority of shoppers still prefer paying cash for online purchases, which creates operational headaches for e-commerce companies.

With FX Mart License, Flipkart which has been a laggard in payments plans to launch a payment service on its app as well as Myntra within the next three months. The company also plans to offer the payment service on third party sites and apps later. The current market leader is Paytm followed by a host of smaller firms such as Oxigen Services India Pvt. Ltd and One MobiKwik Systems Pvt. Ltd.

India has several others payment services start-ups including Citrus Payments Solutions Pvt. Ltd, PayU Payments Pvt. Ltd, CCAvenue and Zaakpay. FX Mart offers electronic payments, foreign exchange and travel services. FX Mart is Flipkart second acquisition in digital payments. It bought another payments start-up NGPay last year.