Myntra acquires Witworks

Myntra has bought Bengaluru based startup Witworks, a maker of wearable devices, for an undisclosed amount, as the Flipkart owned online fashion retail firm looks to diversify and launch new categories, even as it invests heavily on newer technologies such as Artificial Intelligence.

The latest acquisition effectively allows Myntra to enter the wearable business, even as the retailer is looking to go beyond core fashion and grow sales in categories such as personal care, jewelry and home accessories. In the past five years, Myntra has made at least half a dozen acquisitions, most notably that of smaller rival Jabong, which it bought as part of a cut-price deal of $70 million.

The latest acquisition is an acqui-hire of sorts for Myntra, with the entire team of Witworks being absorbed into Myntra Innovation Labs. In 2016, Witworks launched its flagship device, Blink Watch, which runs on a voice-based platform. Myntra said the latest acquisition will allow the retailer to develop wearable products for its in-house brands.

Myntra has a number of in-house brands or private labels, such as Roadster, Dressberry, Anouk and actor Hrithik Roshan’s HRX brand. Myntra has switched its focus to using its resources to expanding sales faster from trying to turn profitable, while also launching a digital TV channel called Myntra TV on YouTube.

FlexiLoans acquires CreditPeriod

Online lending platform FlexiLoans has acquired Mumbai based supply chain finance startup, CreditPeriod for an undisclosed amount. With this move, FlexiLoans attempts to strengthen its supply chain finance offering.

Founded in 2015 by CreditPeriod initially functioned as a B2B ecommerce platform catering to the raw material procurement needs of SMEs. Now a fintech startup, it allows SME buyers to procure goods/services on credit while ensuring that sellers get their money upfront, thereby eliminating credit risk and enabling instant liquidity.

FlexiLoans started operations in January 2016 and was founded by four Indian School of Business alumni. FlexiLoans’ proprietary credit engine allows the startup to disburse a loan within 24 hours. It has already partnered with over 20 national digital marketplaces and organizations like Flipkart, Ola, ShopClues and Jabong etc. The company plans to double loan disbursal in the next one year and tap 200 cities.

As per an IBEF report, the fintech market in India is estimated to double to $2.4 Bn by 2020 from around $1.2 Bn at present. In February 2017, Bengaluru-based online lending platform Capital Float raised about $2.5 Mn (INR 17 Cr) from IFMR Capital Finance and its alternative investment fund. Earlier this month, Pune-based fintech startup EarlySalary rose $4 Mn Series A funding from IDG Ventures India (IDGVI) and Dewan Housing Finance Corp Ltd (DHFL). Other startups in this segment include KountMoney, Faircent.com, LoanCircle, Capzest, etc.

Flipkart’s Myntra acquires Jabong

Flipkart Ltd has acquired Jabong through its unit Myntra in a cut-price deal that values the online fashion store at $70 Million, moving to preserve its position as India’s No 1 e-commerce marketplace in the face of an onslaught by Amazon India. Jabong had been valued at $508 Million in 2013.

For Flipkart – Myntra, the acquisition of Jabong will boost sales at a time when Flipkart is struggling to revive growth and struggling to protect its leadership in a market where Amazon has made rapid strides. Jabong offers more than 1500 international high street brands, sports labels, Indian ethnic and designer labels and over 15,000 styles from more than 1000 sellers.

In September 2014, German investor Rocket Internet merged Jabong with four other online fashion retailers in Latin America, Russia, the Middle East, South East Asia and Australia to create GFG. GFG, which is jointly owned by Rocket Internet and AB Kinnevik, houses the German e-commerce company’s fashion businesses from emerging countries, including Jabong, Latin America Dafiti, Russia Lamoda, Namshi in the Middle East and Zalora in South East Asia and Australia.

Earlier this month, Jabong expedited its sale process as Kinnevik and Rocket Internet were reluctant to pump more capital into the company in a gloomy e-commerce market. Jabong, which matched larger rival Myntra in sales until early 2014, has ceded market share since then, as Myntra parent Flipkart spent lavishly on advertising and discounts to lure customers.

Livspace acquires Dwll.in

Helion Backed home design and décor start up Livspace has announced the acquisition of Bengaluru based Dwll.in to lead the space. Founded in 2013, Dwll.in is an Indian curated online network of interior designers. This is Livspace second acquisition in less than a month. Towards the end of the March, the company had bought DezignUp, an online design community and marketplace.

As part of the deal, the co-founders of Dwll.in and the core team will join the Livspace family. With this acquisition, Livspace will start building go-to-market strategy for the western region, in addition to expanding across other metros and Tier 1 Cities. Livspace is currently projecting a revenue run rate of more than a $10 Million in months to come.

Livspace is an online shopping destination for home décor and furnishings. Also, it offers facility to hire designers on its platform. Further, the users can customize the products based on their requirements. It delivers in Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. Online home décor market in India will touch $20 Billion by 2015.

Out of this $20 Billion market 40% - 50% is furniture and rest are pure home décor items such as Cutlery, kitchen items, fancy lamps etc. Other players in the online furniture space include Urban Ladder, Fab Furnish, HomeLane, CustomerFurnish, Pepperfry etc. Online market place like Snapdeal, Jabong, Homeshop18 etc. also have home décor and furnishing as one of their verticals. 

Amazon acquired Rooftop Media

Rooftop Media records and licenses the digital rights for comedians’ sets at comedy clubs across the USA. The company currently has partnerships with Apple and Yahoo and works with streaming services including Sirius XM, Pandora, and Spotify. Recently, Amazon had struck a deal to acquire Rooftop Media, as online comedic content service that it believes will help it enter new categories, as it competes against fast-rising competition from streaming media such as Netflix Inc.

San Francisco based Rooftop Media produces video and audio content related to stand up comedy, funny short films, and sketch comedy shows, which are then licensed to media and marketing companies to be put online for live broadcast, or made available on demand. Audible is an online audio book service acquired by Amazon in 2008 for almost $300 Million. All of Rooftop content will now be transferred to Audible, which already has more than 170,000 titles available online.

Amazon vision is to make the company a tech and media behemoth. Amazon is competing with competitors head to head in all countries. This year Amazon acquired Twitch, on online gaming platform. Over the past few years, Amazon has stepped out of its conventional retail business and created its very own smartphones, tablets, and set top TV boxes to boost digital content sales. Amazon also launched a new device known as the Fire TV Stick. It is claimed to be powerful streaming media stick in the market. It will compete with Google new Chromecast device.

In India, Amazon is in talk to acquire Fashion Portal Jabong to compete with Flipkart, who acquired Myntra this year. Amazon is also in talks to buy a minority stake in gift card technology and retail firm QwikCilver Solutions. It provides backend technology for the gift card business of several retailers including Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle, and Croma.  

Zomato acquires Poland Gastronauci

Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah as Foodiebay founded Zomato in 2008. Starting with 1200 restaurants in and around Delhi, they quickly expanded to Kolkata, Mumbai, and Pune. In 2010, Info-edge invested $1 Million in the company. In 2010, it rebranded as Zomato to have a brand name that was short and easy to remember.

In the recent news, India based online and mobile restaurant search and discovery services acquired Poland’s leading restaurant service Gastronauci. This was Zomato fourth acquisition in last three months and they have now increased their presence in 16 countries. Ola Lazar founded Gastronauci in 2007. Zomato wants to be Google of food and presently they are in aim of covering Central and Eastern European Market.

Backed by $37 Million it raised from Sequioa Capital and Info-Edge in 2013 it acquired three more firms this year. These include New Zealand based restaurant service MenuMania in July 2014, Czech Republic based restaurant guide Lunchtime.cz, and Slovakia popular restaurant guide Obedovat.sk. Zomato now provides information over 260,000 restaurants across 16 countries. The market it operates includes UK, UAE, South Africa, New Zealand, Philippines, Portugal, Brazil, Chile, Turkey, Indonesia, Srilanka, and Qatar. It also operates across 35 cities in India.

In India, it provides information on over 60,000 restaurants. In the next one year, Zomato plans to enter into nine new markets these includes Canada, Ireland, Malaysia, Vietnam, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, and Colombia. For Zomato the big markets are in US, Germany, Australia, Japan, UK, and Russia. Their competitors in other countries are Yelp, which is present in 28 markets, JustEat, which is present in 13 countries, and Open Table, which has its presence in 20 countries. The primary focuses of these companies are on food ordering and table bookings and they do not aid discovery like Zomato.

Zomato wants to first Internet based Indian brand out to India. The day Zomato did their fourth acquisition, Delhi based Website performance testing startup Wignify acquired US based Concept Feedback, a community platform of user experience experts for online. In the coming days we may see fashion and retail giant Jabong to operate in UK and Printvenue in Australia.

Rocket's Indian Firms expanding Globally

Rocket Internet is one of the world largest e-commerce venture capital firms. Samwer Brothers started it in 2007 in Germany. The founders gained visibility through successful investments in eBay, Groupon, Facebook, Jabong, LinkedIn, and Zynga. The company business model is to find successful internet ventures from other countries and replicate them in emerging markets.

Rocket Internet operates in more than 50 countries and has more than 75 ventures such as Zolando in Germany; Lamoda in Russia, Zalora in South East Asia, Iconic in Australia, global food delivery sites Foodpanda, and property listing sites Lamudi and Carmudi. In India, Rocket Internet operates Jabong and Printvenue. Rocket Internet wants to be world largest e-commerce platform outside the U.S and China. By the end of this year, Rocket Internet Group may close its initial public offering. It would be second e-commerce firm IPO this year, after Alibaba.

One of the Indian E-commerce firms Printvenue plans to start operations in Australia with a team of marketing, content, and sourcing. There is no competitive environment in Australia for the company. It will soon be seen in Asia-Pacific Region such as South East and Middle East too. Over the next four five years, Printvenue plans to venture into Europe, and Latin America. Printvenue is already operating in Singapore with a small team.

Earlier this month, German venture capital group decided to take online fashion retailer Jabong.com to a global platform by merging it with four other such businesses in Latin America, Russia, Middle East, South East Asia, and Australia. Jabong has also opened an office in London where a team of 15-20 people will design its private label. These steps of Rocket Internet taking portfolio companies global were always on its agenda and these are linked to upcoming IPO.

Its global online food-ordering firm, Foodpanda is continuously expanding into developing markets. Foodpanda is present in more than 45 countries across Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Latin America. After Jack Ma Alibaba, soon people will see Billionaires from Germany and Rocket Internet world largest e-commerce venture capitalist firm.