Swiggy acqui-hires 48East

Bengaluru based food ordering and delivery startup Swiggy has acqui-hired the management team of Bengaluru based gourmet Asian Food startup 48East in order to further broaden its senior leadership. Following this acqui-hire, the company looks to serve its consumers more efficiently and consequently grow in the market.

Swiggy Access, for the uninitiated, is an initiative aimed at reaching more customers and making its delivery more seamless. Geared towards facilitating the business expansion of partners on the platform, the new service allows restaurant partners to set up kitchen spaces in areas where they do not have a physical presence.

Swiggy currently has a presence in more than 10 cities across the country and claims to have tie-ups with around 20,000 restaurants in these cities. The Bengaluru-based startup has raised a total funding of $155.5 Mn (INR 1000 Cr) till date and clocks over 4 Mn transactions per month on its platform. By acqui-hiring 48East, the online food delivery platform is looking to bolster its presence in the market, amidst competition from highly funded players like UberEATS and Zomato.

Its biggest rival Zomato has also made a number of investments and acquisitions in the last couple of months. In the second of September, the foodtech unicorn took over Bengaluru-based Runnr, a B2B online service provider platform for hyperlocal logistics services. The move was aimed at strengthening Zomato’s food delivery capacity. A week later, the Gurugram-based company also invested an undisclosed amount of funding in the Hyderabad-based foodtech startup, TinMen.

BookMyShow acquires MastiTickets

BookMyShow had acquired Hyderabad based online ticketing platform MastiTickets for an undisclosed amount. As a part of the deal, MastiTickets will transfer all of its key assets, along with existing cinema partnerships, to BookMyShow.

MastiTickets was founded in late 2014. As an online entertainment ticketing platform, it allows users to book tickets for movies through its website, mobile app and mobile site. The platform soon grew to establish a strong presence in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and currently works with over 120 cinemas. With this acquisition, BookMyShow aims to further consolidate its position and strengthen its footprint.

BookMyShow (Bigtree Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.) was founded in Mumbai in 1999 and launched in 2007. With a reach across 400 towns and cities in India, BookMyShow allows users to book tickets for movies, plays, sports and live events through its website, mobile app and mobile site. While BookMyShow is a leader in the ticket booking space in India, it may have to tread cautiously in 2017 as 'cord cutting' has gained popularity in the country, with more customers opting for home-based entertainment solutions like Netflix and the more recently launched Amazon Prime Video.

While this is BookMyShow first acquisition in 2017, the company has acquired a few other startups in the past, such as Chennai-based online ticketing player TicketGreen in 2013. This was followed by the purchase of a majority stake in Bengaluru-based social media analytics startup Eventifier in 2015 and then the acquisition of Chennai-based fan relationship management (FRM) solutions provider Fantain Sports Pvt. Ltd. in 2016.

Voonik acquires app Dekkoh

Voonik Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which operates the fashion app Voonik had acquired styling and personalization app Dekkoh for an undisclosed amount. Dekkoh connects over 200 stylists to consumers seeking fashion advice. It was designed as a fashion discovery platform that allows users to chat with a stylist and buy clothing and accessories that suits them.

Voonik is built around personalized fashion, to provide every customer a solution and opportunity to be fashionable every day. Dekkoh platform is doing the same through an engaged community of stylists and a highly data driven profiling and chatbots. In June, the Bengaluru based company also announced the acquisition of three other start-ups in the fashion space – Zohraa, Styl and Picksilk to enter the premium e-commerce segment.

Before these, Voonik also acqui-hired Trialkart, Getsy and a team from apparel rental start-up Klozee. Voonik runs a lean marketplace business where it operates without inventory and fulfillment centres. It claims to have more than 12 Million registered users, with 10 Million app downloads. On the supply side, it has more than 15 Million products from more than 20,000 sellers.

The company last raised $20 Million in Series B funding led by Sequoia India, Times Internet, Seedfund, Beenos, Beenext, Parkwood Bespin, Tancom Investments and Freecharge.

Microsoft acquires Wand Labs

Technology giant Microsoft corp. has acquired a messaging app developer founded by an Indian as the US based software firm aims to strengthen its position in the emerging era of combining the power of human language with advanced machine intelligence.

Microsoft acquired California based Wand Labs, a startup which builds messaging technology for apps, founded in 2013. Wand Labs technology and talent would strengthen Microsoft position in the emerging era of conversational intelligence where they bring together the power of human language with advanced machine intelligence, connecting people to knowledge, information, services and other people in more relevant and natural ways.

The acquisition builds on and extends the power of the Microsoft search Engine Bing, its cloud computing platform Azure, Office 365 and Windows platform to empower developers everywhere. Wand Labs expertise around services mapping, third party developer integration and conversational interfaces makes it a great fit to join the Bing Engineering and platform team.

Myntra Buys app developer Native5

Online fashion e-tailer Myntra has acquired Bengaluru based mobile application development platform Native5, a move that goes with its strategy to shift entirely to the mobile platform. Native5 has developed a cloud platform to create and distribute mobile apps across smart phones, tablets and desktops.

Flipkart and Myntra had recently closed down their websites, with the aim of focusing more resources on their mobile apps. There is also speculation that they may close down their desktop websites in the future and go mobile app only, considering they are getting a lot of traction on their apps.

Myntra recently hosted an open Mobile Hack Day’ and had about 160 Internal and External participants from various companies developing hacks around their mobile app. The winning hacks included chat based commerce, real time chat application to buy with friends, an augmented reality shooting game and an app that links all other apps. This shows that Myntra is serious about its ‘app only’ strategy and is looking at all possible angles to provide a better and more complete end to end experience.

Native5 was incubated at Microsoft Accelerator in 2013 and it was a part of the Nasscom 10,000 startup programme the same year. The venture was one of the finalists of Qualcomm QPrize in 2012. Previously, in 2012, Myntra acquired Exclusively, which had a private label brand, and in 2013, it acquired Fitiquette that developed an in-store dressing room experience akin to a virtual fitting room for shoppers to try on clothes online.

Practo Acquires Fitho

Practo Technologies Pvt. Ltd., an online doctor booking portal had acquired Delhi-based health and fitness solutions firm Fitho Wellness Services Pvt. Ltd, which runs the Fitho Mobile app. Bengaluru based Practo is looking to launch services in preventive healthcare by the end of this year. This acquisition will provide it access to Fitho proprietary algorithm and recommendation engine, which will help expand Practo offerings.

Practo will launch a new preventive healthcare product that will leverage some of the technology from Fitho, whose service will phase out over the next six months. Practo raised $30 Million in a second round funding in February to fund its expansion in 35 cities in India and overseas.

Fitho was founded in 2010. The technology solutions help users manage weight and lifestyle diseases. The products provide personalized advice to millions of consumers on nutrition and physical activity. As the part of deal, Fitho current offerings will be phased out over the next six months and the founders will take on roles in preventive health and new segments.

Practo ray is a subscription based web software tool for doctors who provide automated appointment scheduling, storage of healthcare records including x-ray, files, prescriptions and billing. The company has 500,000 users of the mobile app which is 60% of the total user base. The overall Indian healthcare market today is estimated to be around $65 Billion. Healthcare delivery which includes hospitals, nursing homes and diagnostic centers, and pharmaceuticals, constitutes 65% of the overall market. 

MakeMyTrip Acquires Mygola

The country’s top online travel agency MakeMyTrip Ltd has acquired assets of Mygola.com for an undisclosed amount and the entire Mygola team has joined MakeMyTrip as part of the deal. The acquisition is done through the NASDAQ listed company innovation fund, which was formed to invest in startup or early stage companies in travel technology space.

Mygola, founded by IIT Batch mates Bapna and Prateek Sharma in 2009, claims it can help travellers create custom trips in 15 minutes. Its app, which is present in 16 cities across the world, has up to 5,000 installs on the Google Play store on Android. Mygola mobile app uses technology to curate content, videos, open/close hours, tips from travellers, panoramic views all on a massive scale and specific to individual user taste. The acquisition could potentially give MakeMyTrip a greater foothold in the mobile space.

Since users book everything from attractions to restaurants and cabs from within the app, the company makes money through a commission every time a transaction happens. For restaurant booking it charges $1 per diner and between 5 and 10 percent from cabs etc. It also charges 5 percent from end users as convenience fee. In the original model, Mygola used to generate revenues from users asking questions besides earning a commission for bookings.

The acquisition comes at a time when the Indian travel sector is heating up, having received $71 Million in funding so far in 2015, mostly in early stage and seed funding, as opposed to $55 Million in all of 2014. Helion Venture partners, who led the $1.5 Million round in 2013 for Mygola in October, were also an investor in MakeMyTrip. Prior to that, Mygola had raised $1 Million from the US based accelerator 500 startups, Blumberg capital.

Microsoft buys Office Collaborator app LiveLoop

Microsoft has made another move to augment its productivity services, with the acquisition of an Office collaboration tool developer named LiveLoop for an undisclosed amount. The San-Francisco based LiveLoop is best known for its collaboration tools for Microsoft Office, allowing teams of people to work together on documents.

Its popular LiveLoop for PowerPoint plugin converts presentations into a web URL that becomes a collaborative document accessible by variety of devices without any additional software. Microsoft is facing increased competition in the productivity space. Google, Amazon, Apple and others are all pushing their own productivity suites and Microsoft needs to continue innovating to compete.

Microsoft in the recent past has been making several productivity themed acquisitions, such as Acompli email client, and the Sunrise calendar app. More recently, Microsoft announced its Office productivity suite will be free for devices with screen sizes smaller than 10.1 inches. The company also announced a partnership with Adobe to help build Windows 10’s new default browser ‘Spartan’.

Star India acquires Screen

Star India is an Indian Media and entertainment company, owned by 21^st Century Fox. It is headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Star India portfolio includes 48 channels in eight languages. Recently, Star India entered into an agreement with Indian Express Group to acquire film magazine ‘Screen’. Founded in 1951, Screen also owns a popular film awards franchise by the same name.

As part of the transaction, Star will get exclusive ownership of the Screen brand franchise, including all archival material and transfer of key employees. The screen acquisition will yield huge benefits for Star India and Hotstar app, the digital platform. Star has built one of the largest media and entertainment organizations in the country, reaching over 700 million viewers with nearly 40 channels in seven languages.

Screen, with a circulation of nearly 15,000 copies per week, will publish its last print edition this week as Star India takes the entertainment weekly online to be a part of its recently launched digital initiative Hotstar. Hotstar launched on 1 February, is a mobile application that offers more than 35,000 hours of content in seven languages, promising viewers a big library of movies, television shows and even live sports (cricket, football, tennis, and kabaddi).

The deal is estimated to be in the range of Rs 30 crore to Rs 40 crore. The acquisitions means Star now owns the popular screen awards. Last month, Star India acquired Telugu television channel Maa TV in its largest acquisition in India, in a deal estimated to be in excess of Rs 2000 Crore. Hotstar has 35-40 advertisers across various categories including Coca Cola, Nissan, Nestle, and Airtel, as well as e-commerce companies like Snapdeal and Flipkart.

Zomato acquires Turkey based Mekanist

Online restaurant search service company Zomato continues to be on an acquisition store. The firm, launched in 2008 and valued at $660 Million, announced it had acquired Turkey based Mekanist. However, the company did not disclose the size of the deal, but it is estimated at $35-50 Million. This is Zomato seventh acquisition in last seven months.

A few days earlier, Zomato had acquired Urbanspoon in the US for $52 Million. With the acquisition of Mekanist, the restaurant search company will expand into several cities in Turkey. Its coverage will increase from about 27,500 restaurants in Istanbul and Ankara to about 75,000 across the country, serving users about three million times a month.

Ali Servet Eyuboglu and Eren founded Mekanist eight years ago. Zomato had forayed into Turkey in November 2013, making its website and apps available to users in Turkish and English. Through the next two months, the company will roll out an integrated product in the two languages for users and business owners. Zomato has a team of 27 people in Turkey; most of them who are is based out of Istanbul.

Mekanist has about 190,000 listed establishments such as popular restaurants, cafes, and bars, along with about 500,000 reviews from its 1.5 Million signed up user base on the web and mobile platforms. Mekanist entire traffic and restaurant related content would now move to Zomato, while Mekanist app users will be able to use the Zomato app. In addition, restaurants could benefit from Zomato hyper-local advertising model and target customers. The ‘Zomato for Business’ app suite will help restaurant businesses connect and engage with customers.