MockBank acqui-hires Litoro

MockBank Learning Pvt. Ltd, a test preparation start-up for government jobs has acquired Vijayawada based web and mobile services company Litoro Tech Solutions Pvt. Ltd.  The purchase is part of a so-called acqui-hire strategy in which one company buys another to gain access to the target talent pool rather than its products and services.

Litoro was founded in 2012. In September, MockBank raised $400,000 in a seed round of funding led by Blume Ventures. Singapore based angel fund Mercatus Capital and angel investors such as SlideShare co-founder Amit Ranjan and Bain and Co. India chairman Srivatsan Rajan also participated in the round.

MockBank focuses on jobs related to the banking financial services and insurance sector, including public sector banks, Reserve Bank of India and Life Insurance Corporation of India. MockBank also plans to explore categories like civil and judicial services, engineering and teaching. The company claims to have more than 100,000 users over 5,000 among them being paying customers. MockBank charges customers between Rs. 150 and Rs. 6000 depending on the services.

India has become the largest e-learning market after the US, and the sector is projected to grow at a compounded annual rate of 17.4% between 2013 and 2018, twice as fast as the global average. At least 73 companies in the online education segment have raised institutional capital this year. About $63 Million have been pumped into this sector since 2014, while Simplilearn which has raised $28 Million, and Toppr with about $12.2 Million.

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.