Aricent Acquires SmartPlay

Aricent Inc., a US based company providing Software and engineering services, has acquired Bangalore based Chip design services firm SmartPlay Technologies Pvt. Ltd. for around $180 Million. This is one of the biggest acquisitions in the semiconductor space in India. It is also Aricent fifth and the biggest ever acquisition in the country.

SmartPlay has around 1,200 employees in India, Germany, Singapore and the US. The acquisition will also expand Aricent 10,000 strong engineering team, which caters to nine core industries including telecommunications, networking, consumer electronics, industrial automation, semiconductor, automotive, internet services, consumer and enterprise software, media and entertainment.

The acquisition follows France based Technology consulting firm Altran acquisition of India based SiCon Design Technologies last month and the acquisition of Bengaluru based Cosmic Circuits in 2013 by Cadence Design Systems of the US, and demonstrates India’s growing and deep strengths in semiconductor design. SmartPlay was founded in 2008.

Aricent started in late 1990s as Hughes Software, a firm that was acquired by Flextronics International. In 2006, private equity major Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co. acquired a majority stake in the venture and renamed it Aricent. Aricent previously acquired four other Indian firms – FutureSoft, Emuzed, Deccanet and Tenet Technologies. 

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.

iKaaz launches mobile payment platform

Bangalore-based mobile payments solutions provider, iKaaz Software Pvt Ltd has launched a platform to facilitate quick and easy payments for enterprises as well as consumers. iKaaz consumers wallet offers banks, operators, and merchants a mobile wallet to their customers, while its consumer centric platform iKaaz M-POS can replace expensive POS equipment with just a feature phone that settles payments electronically.

The company also offers an app, Tap & Pay, using which a bank account holder can initiate money transfers and consumers can complete merchant transactions and pay bills using their mobile phones. With this app, which leverages NFC technology, merchants can receive payments from customers with just a tap of a phone at the checkout terminal.

On the one hand, customers can transform their mobile phones into a mobile wallet using a smart iKaaz NFC tag and complete payments faster at merchant locations. On the other hand, merchants can benefit by significantly by reducing the transaction processing fees. Developed by domain experts with many years of experience in the mobile payments space, iKaaz is head quartered in Bangalore and caters to customers across the globe. It has offices in Washington the US and Nairobi in Kenya.

Last year, iKaaz has expanded into Kenya. For the same, the company had collaborated with Family Bank, one of the leading banks in the country. As the part of partnership, iKaaz will provide the customers of Family bank with its Near Field Communication (NFC) and Bluetooth powered contactless payments through Tap and Pay method. The software provider was also in talks to raise $10 M from Brand capital, which will be used for expansion in India for a new product.