Milkbasket acquires Veggie India

Micro delivery startup Milkbasket has acquired Noida based online grocery venture Veggie India for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition would strengthen its distribution capabilities and grow its customer base to more than lakh households.

Ocado Garden Fresh Pvt Ltd, which operates Veggie India, was founded in January 2017. Veggie India, which operates a mobile app, helps users choose from more than 3,000 products including fruits and vegetables, organic products, packed and frozen food, beauty and hygiene products, and kitchen and household essentials. The app claims to have more than 5,000 users primarily from Noida and Ghaziabad.

The buyout comes months after Milkbasket raised $7 million (Rs 49 crore) in an extended Series A round led by US-based early-to-growth-stage venture capital firm Mayfield Advisors. Founded in 2015, Milkbasket currently has a presence in Delhi, Gurugram, Noida and Bengaluru.

Unlike bigger players in the online grocery delivery market such as BigBasket, Grofers, Amazon and Flipkart, Milkbasket positions itself as the online version of local mom-and-pop grocery stores but with more stock keeping units. It generally supplies perishable and non-perishable products that are bought in smaller quantities but with higher frequency.

McDonald acquires Dynamic Yield

American Fast Food Company, McDonald has entered into an agreement to acquire decision logic technology provider Dynamic Yield for $300 Million in an attempt to enhance customer experience and provide better personalized menus using digital technology.

This acquisition is an attempt to use personalized digital technology for better customer experience. It would enable the fast-food chain to customize the electronic menu boards' display of items, depending upon various factors such as weather, regional preferences and the time of day.

McDonald has emphasized on digital technology and has included self-order kiosks, digital menus boards and delivery services to boost the sales and to help it stand out among its competitors. This is the largest acquisition of the fast-food company and showcases the company's desires to use technology for speed growth in the ever-competitive restaurant industry.

Dynamic Yield has raised a total of $83.3 million from investors, including Innovation Endeavors, Bessemer Venture Partners and Marker Capital, as well as strategic backers like Naver (which owns the messaging apps Line and Snow), Baidu, The New York Times and Deutsche Telekom.

Spotify acquires Parcast

Spotify has announced the acquisition of Parcast as the company begins to explore the audio podcast arena for new content and business opportunities. This marks Spotify's third podcast-related acquisition in two months, and represents the company's ongoing plan to boost the music streaming platform as a hub for podcasts that can compete with Apple Podcasts.

Last month, Spotify purchased Gimlet Media for $300 million, acquiring the company's big-name podcasts like "Homecoming" and "Reply All." Around the same time, Spotify also purchased Anchor, a company that is more behind-the-scenes of the podcast world and lets its user’s record and create their own shows that can easily be shared online.

Parcast will be added to that list, and Spotify will now have ownership of its specialization in crime and mystery-themed podcast content, genres that are hugely successful in the market. Parcast is home to a big list of popular genres and podcasts, covering topics like cults, serial killers, haunted places, unexplained mysteries, extraterrestrials, and more. 

These purchased shows will also join new and original podcasts created by Spotify, all of which will be curated by the team that built Spotify's Discover Weekly playlist algorithm. Eventually, the music streaming company hopes to become the Netflix of podcasts, able to provide recommendations on what to watch and house both third-party and exclusive first-party content.

Netmeds acquires KiViHealth

Chennai based pharmaceuticals e-commerce portal Netmeds.com has announced the acquisition of another healthtech startup KiViHealth in a cash and stock deal. The Chennai-based company will invest about $10 Mn to integrate and grow KiViHealth business segment.

Ahmedabad-based KiViHealth is a clinic management platform, which helps patients to search and book doctor appointments, manage medical records, get notified on medicine schedule, and track their health timeline. Further, the startup uses artificial intelligence to give a chatbot like experience to its users and to maintain a health record for patients as well as doctors.

KiViHealth also serves the doctors through a digital prescription pad which allows doctors to generate digital prescriptions. The company was founded in 2015. KiViHealth claims to have enrolled over 3.1K hospitals and health centres, and in turn manages more than 2 Mn patient records, along with serving about 2K doctors through its website and mobile app.

NSEIT acquires cyber security company Aujas

NSEIT, the IT services focused subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange has acquired Aujas Networks Ltd., a company which provides information security consulting and IT risk management services.

Founded in 2008, Aujas has operations in India, the Middle East and North America. It employs about 400 cyber security professionals and has over 390 customers globally. The service portfolio includes information risk advisory, identity & access management, threat management and security analytics.

NSEIT currently provides technology solutions across industries such as capital markets, financial markets, banking and insurance. It also provides services relating to algorithmic trading (ultralow latency system), order management system exchange connectivity, Pre-trade and post-trade risk management, regulatory and compliance management, surveillance, exchange adapters, exchange simulator, and mobile trading.

According to data from Crunchbase, Aujas has raised $11 million since 2008 from a slew of early stage venture capital funds in India, including Chiratae Ventures (then known as IDG Ventures), IvyCap Ventures and Rajasthan Venture Capital fund. Aujas last raised $5.4 million from the 3 investors in 2013.

PayU to acquire Wibmo

Naspers owned Fintech Company PayU is looking to dominate the entire payments processes as it is in talks to acquire Bengaluru and Cupertino based Wibmo that specializes in processing online payments. The deal is reportedly expected to be $50 - $60 Million.

Wibmo offers its digital payment technology solutions and payment security in multiple countries including India. The company also offers 3D secure process of digital payments, which is the page where customers are asked to punch in their passwords or one-time passwords (OTPs) to authenticate digital transactions.

The company is certified by Mastercard, Visa, RuPay as well as PCI DSS and can therefore, process all forms of digital payments from cards to mobile based transactions.  PayU is doubling down on emerging fintech markets, and India is possibly the biggest geography for them. The company will be reportedly committing substantial capital for investments and acquisitions, particularly to build its credit and SMB lending businesses.

PayU has earmarked more than $1 Bn to deploy in India, as it bulks up its portfolio here inorganically. PayU India has emerged as one of the largest players in the online payments space after acquiring Citrus Payments in 2016. Since then, PayU has invested in digital lending startups like Zest Money, PaySense and Remitly.

Quikr to acquire Zefo

Online classifieds marketplace, Quikr is reportedly in talks to acquire Gurugram based used goods marketplace Zefo, for approximately $28.5 Million in an all-stock deal. Following the acquisition, Sequoia-backed Zefo will reportedly continue to operate as a separate entity.

Zefo was founded in 2015 manages its end-to-end operations, including product refurbishment and repairs of its sold products, in order to ensure a higher degree of standardization. In 2017, Zefo had raised $9.2 Mn (INR 60 Cr) in Series B funding. The round was led by prolific investors such as Sequoia India, Helion Venture Partners and Singapore-headquartered VC fund Beenext.

Founded in 2008, Bengaluru-based Quikr has followed an acquisition strategy to strengthen its various businesses and has acquired 14 startups till date including HDFC Developers, Commonfloor, Babajob, Hiree, Zimmber, and ZapLuk.

Quikr, which competes with OLX, Quikr and eBay, already hosts refurbished products advertisements on its platform but it does not offer repairs or delivery of the refurbished goods. The platform simply connects the buyer and seller, who then schedule the product pickup and payment among themselves.

Airbnb to buy HotelTonight

Airbnb Inc. agreed to buy HotelTonight, its biggest acquisition yet, in a move to increase hotel listings on the site. In early 2017, Airbnb acquired Luxury Retreats for about $300 million, its largest purchase at the time.

San Francisco-based HotelTonight offers last-minute hotel bookings, seeking to tap into unused inventory largely in urban areas, and the app has been a travel-industry darling since it launched in 2010.

The acquisition extends Airbnb’s reach even further into the hotel industry, where it has been a disruptive force since its launch just over a decade ago. Airbnb transformed the travel sector by persuading millions of people to open up their homes to strangers. It became such a market force that mainstream travel and hotel companies like Booking Holdings Inc. have been furiously spending to offer more home listings on their own sites.

Airbnb began highlighting hotels more prominently on its website and introduced a loyalty program, taking a step further onto the turf of its rivals. It more than doubled the number of rooms available in properties categorized as boutique hotels, bed-and-breakfasts, and other hospitality venues like hostels and resorts.

Zoho acquihires ePoise Systems

Chennai based SaaS startup, Zoho has acqui-hired an automated hiring product startup, ePoise Systems, for an undisclosed amount. The deal also included the acquisition of ePoise intellectual property rights.

ePoise Systems was founded in 2013. The Bengaluru-based startup offers an automated hiring software product targeted at mass recruiting companies. The product also has a series of pre-designed screening steps for various company profiles. Along with a set of assessments which finally lead to an automated video interview.

Indian startup, Zoho has more than 40 integrated online applications aiding multiple business operations such as sales and marketing, finance, email and collaboration, information technology and help desk, human resources and custom solutions like app creator and analytics.

The firm over 45 million users and has been expanding its product portfolio over the last several years. It offers its product separately as well as under a single user license as Zoho One. Manage Engine, a division of Zoho, helps its customers with on-premise IT management.

Zomato to sell UAE business to Delivery Hero

Berlin based food delivery player Delivery Hero has acquired United Arab Emirates (UAE) business of Gurugram based food delivery and restaurant discovery company, Zomato.

The acquisition will add 1.2 Mn monthly orders and $2 Mn monthly revenue to Delivery Hero’s Middle East and North Africa region business and will strengthen its leadership position in the UAE. The online food ordering company Delivery Hero is present across 41 countries in Europe, the Middle East & North Africa (MENA), Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region. Delivery Hero also operates its own delivery service primarily in over 200 cities around the world. In India, Delivery Hero was invested in Foodpanda but later sold it for 1% stake in Ola in 2017.

UAE was the first global foray of Zomato in 2012 and soon accounted for 20% of its orders. The company also launched its premium service Zomato Gold in UAE in 2017 and in one year had over 380 restaurant partners for over 15,000 Zomato Gold members.

Zomato has been in a tough situation since its Bengaluru-based rival Swiggy raised $1 Bn in 2018, at the end to the year after joining the unicorn club earlier in the year. To challenge this, Zomato has also been in talks to raise a large funding round of $500 Mn-$1 Bn. Zomato recorded $1Bn in annual gross merchandise value. It also posted a 40% growth in its revenue for FY18 and targeted expansion to 100 cities across India.