Helpchat acquires Niffler

Coraza Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which operates instant messenger based personal assistant platform Helpchat, has acquired Mumbai based mobile app Niffler that helps discover deals and discounts from brick and mortar sales. Amount of deal was not disclosed and entire team of Niffler will now join Helpchat.

The acquisition will aid Helpchat in expanding to Pune and Mumbai faster as Niffler already has a presence in these key markets. Niffler team has expertise on community driven experiences and retailer supported commerce. Niffler has vision of enabling consumers to get more done through chat based personal assistance.

Acquisition will also help Helpchat accelerate the growth of its personal assistant search across the areas of offline commerce and deals based on user intent. Founded in 2014, Niffler helps user find deals and discounts from offline merchants across categories including food and drinks, spas and salons, apparel and home décor. It had recently introduced chat-based interactions between consumers and local business.

Niffler had raised a funding worth $1 Million in March 2015 from SAIF Partners. Helpchat, which rebranded itself from online complaints redressal company Akosha in July, currently offers information and assistance for various chores, ranging from phone recharges to tech support and travel bookings. It now also plans to introduce payment options as part of its service.

The company raised around Rs. 100 crore from Sequoia Capital in May this year. It has over 600 employees with offices in Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai. The company says it handles 50,000 requests a day with 30% coming from Bengaluru.

Askme acquires BestAtLowest.com

Askme.com, the online search, listings and deals portal of Getit Infomedia Pvt. Ltd, has acquired Online groceries start up BestAtLowest.com. With this acquisition, the e-commerce portal and its team of 25 people became a part of Askme. This will work on integrating BestAtLowest.com into askmegroceries.com which will be launched later this year.

Accelity BestAtLowest.com Online services Pvt. Ltd, which runs bestatlowest.com is a marketplace working in the hub and spoke model. It has tied up with retailers and supermarket stores to acquire food and groceries to supply to its hub, which are the delivered across locations. It offers a same day delivery service within 4-6 hours of consumers placing an order in Delhi and the National Capital Region.

This is an acqui-hire, where one acquire a company and get its talent on board to extend or build a new category. In March, Godrej Nature Basket had acquired Ekstop.com, an online groceries portal, and integrated its platform to augment its online delivery and web presence. The brand also offers same day delivery in the five cities it operates.

Online groceries which is not even a per cent of sales of the consumer packaged goods sector, is becoming a fast growing segment. The internet will influence one-third of the total sales in the consumer packaged goods sector in the next five years. Brick and mortar retail in India is expected to grow three times to $180 Billion in 2020 from $60 Billion in 2015. 

Future Group and Amazon Partnership

From being dismissive about the potential of e-commerce in India to joining hands with the sector, leading ‘brick and mortar’ retailing entities seem to have had a chance of thinking on the former. A week after Future group Kishore Biyani alleged that online retailers were indulging in predatory pricing, the company announced a partnership with Amazon India.

The two companies will jointly sell goods over the internet amid growing friction between online and offline retailers over heavy discounting. Future group will sell more than 45 own labels of apparel, followed by in-house brands in the home, electronics and food categories, while the US headquartered company will handle order fulfillment and customer service for the merchandise on its portal. Both firms will also develop a new line of products across categories to be exclusively sold at Amazon and Future Group’s retail stores.

In its home market, Amazon had similar alliances with retailers such as Target Corp and Toys R US in the past decade though both sourced over time once the online seller gained scale and attracted other large brands. Following the India deal, Future Group’s four dozen own brands such as Lee Cooper, John Miller and Indigo nation will be taken off from online marketplaces where they are currently being sold.

It is also reported that Amazon is planning to open its first brick and mortar store in New York. The company main rivals in India are Flipkart, Snapdeal and other online stores. In the offline market, just three companies – Aditya Birla Madura Garments, Arvind Brands and Future Group either own or sell more than two dozen brands each, thus becoming the preferred options for any online player looking to partner retailers.

Industry insiders also said the Indian retailers move reflects a bid to expand into new distribution channels such as e-commerce in the search of growth. Last month, Snapdeal agreed to create Croma Flagship store on its e-commerce portal to sell electronics items including mobiles, tablets, and laptops.