Paytm buys Edukart

Payment service provider Paytm (One97 Communications Ltd) has bought education technology start-up Edukart, backed by cricketer Yuvraj Singh and Paytm founder after it failed to raise new funds. The purchase, whose value wasn’t disclosed, is a so called acquihire – or buying out a company primarily for the skills and expertise of its staff.

Edukart aggregated courses offered by other education technology startups such as Byju’s, Simplilearn, Edureka and Toppr, coaching institutes such as Aakash Institute, Vidyamandir Classes and Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University, Annamalai University, National Institute of Management and Technology and University of Mysore among others.

The company raised $2 Million in three rounds from Kima Ventures, AKM Systems, Stanford Alumni, Paytm’s Sharma, WaterBridge Ventures, Yuvraj Singh YouWeCan Ventures, early stage fund 500 startups, angel United Finsec, the family office of hologram maker Holostik Group. According to industry expert, while Edukart startups may boast of a large user base, they might struggle to make users pay for the content.

Since 2015, Paytm has either invested in or bought at least five firms. It has bought consumer behavior prediction and recommendation platform Shifu and home services provider Near.in, apart from investing in online auto-rickshaw aggregator Jugnoo, logistics data start-up LogiNext and deal discovery app Little. 

Jugnoo acquires SabKuchFresh

On demand auto-rickshaw aggregator Jugnoo has acquired SabKuchFresh for an undisclosed amount to strengthen its recently launched grocery delivery service ‘Fatafat’. The acquisition comes after Chandigarh based Jugnoo raised $10 Million in Series B funding from mobile payments and commerce platform Paytm, Snow Leopard and Rocketship.vc in April.

This is a step towards helping the auto drivers to supplement their livelihood through extra earnings. Jugnoo also intends to create a logistics network for the mass market of India and wants to tap the hyper-local delivery service space through best possible routes. SabKuchFresh, an online store of fruits and vegetables has a tie-up with more than 100 farmers has a strong network of B2B and B2C users.

Jugnoo was launched in November 2014 and its auto-rickshaw aggregation service is now present in 29 cities and has a user base of 120 Million. Jugnoo operates three apps, the auto-rickshaw aggregation service Jugnoo Autos, food delivery service Jugnoo meals and hyperlocal delivery service Jugnoo Fatafat. The company is looking to strengthen its businesses.

Jugnoo had earlier acquired online Taxi booking platform BookMyCab in a cash and stock deal in July last year. The company raised $5 Million in Series A funding from Snow Leopard Technology Ventures and Paytm in July last year, $5.5 Million in a series B 1 round in January this year.

Paytm acquires Shifu

Payments service provider Paytm, run by One97 Communications Pvt. Ltd, has acquired consumer behavior prediction and recommendation platform Shifu for $8 Million. Delhi based Shifu, run by Signal Inc. started operations in August 2012. It mines the smartphone usage patterns of users and makes personalized recommendations to them.

Shifu has been quite popular as an intelligent task managing application. This acquisition will give further impetus to focus on Artificial Intelligence. By predicting user behavior based on past usage, location and other data points, Paytm platform will be able to offer relevant recommendations to users. Paytm will be able to offer a highly intuitive and personalized experience to users.

Shifu is a free task managing app. Once the app is installed, it analyses the usage patterns of the device owner and makes a variety of suggestions based on a predictive algorithm. Paytm has been actively investing in startups. The company in October invested in transportation app Jugnoo, in Hyperlocal deals platform ‘Little’ in July, and in logistics startup LogiNext.

Noida based Paytm currently has a user base of more than 100 Million. The company is backed by investors including Alibaba Group, Saif Partners, Sapphire Venture and Silicon Valley Bank. Paytm which started out as payments solutions providers ventured into e-commerce in May 2014. In November, Paytm acquired home service marketplace Near.in for an undisclosed amount to focus on O2O and Hyperlocal commerce.

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.