Crossroads acquires MeriCAR.com

Roadside assistance services firm Crossroads India has acquired the country’s first online car garage aggregator MeriCAR.com to expand its network across the country. Post-acquisition, Crossroads will surpass 1,000 branded garages across the country. It aims to grow this number to over 5,000 in the next two years.

With MeriCAR.com on board, the company would be able to hasten its garage aggregation process, which is seen as a key growth driver going forward. As part of the deal, MeriCAR.com founder Rakesh Sidana will be joining Crossroads and will head a newly created vertical points of sales and services (POSS) network.

Established in 2008 as listing model, MeriCAR created a unique value proposition for helping car owners for repairing and car servicing. It is expanding its reach across the country by offering services through its digital platform, apart from its traditional road side assistance (RSA) brick and mortar model.

The company has recently expanded its retail sales teams to energize operations in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, West Bengal, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Odisha, and Rajasthan. The city based firm started operations 16 years ago in 1999 and today has B2C operations in 12 cities and network presence in 30 cities across the country.

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.

Apollo Tyres acquires Germany Reifencom

After having failed to acquire the US based Cooper Tire in a $2.5 Billion deal, the country second largest tyre manufacturer by Sales, Apollo Tyres had acquired Reifencom GmBH, one of the largest tyre distributors in Germany for Euro 45.6 Million.

Reifencom GmBH has an online presence in six countries – Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, and Denmark. In Addition, it operates 37 stores and service centres across Germany. Acquisition will enable Apollo to improve its mix of distribution channels in Germany and Europe and aid in increasing the visibility of Apollo and Vredestein tyres offline and especially in the fast growing online retail space.

Reifencom has turnover of 147 Million euro in 2014. The acquisition will give Apollo two benefits: increase in number of channels overseas as well as access to retailing multiple brands. Apollo already has 3,500 dealers/partners in Europe which will now get further enhanced due to the acquisition of Reifencom.

The success of Reifencom GmBH is attributed to its highly efficient logistics system, which ensures there is a guarantee of a high degree of availability of all kinds of tyres and rims, even during busy periods like spring and autumn. Reifencom GmBH procures tyres and rims from leading manufacturers thereby ensuring a high level of quality.

Yahoo to acquire Polyvore

Yahoo Chief executive officer Marissa Mayer is pushing to add more news, entertainment and shopping information to the web portal in order to draw a bigger audience and sell advertising. Yahoo Inc. is buying shopping service Polyvore Inc., seeking to improve its online fashion content and boost shopping related advertising.

Polyvore, which combines social and e-commerce, tools for apparel and accessories, will initially be integrated into Yahoo’s Magazines that focus on beauty and style. Polyvore lets users put together themed collections of items, like those seen in fashion magazines. People can browse through the collections and then buy the items. Polyvore will add more than 350 retailers to Yahoo’s advertising platform.

Polyvore backers include Goldman Sachs, DAG Ventures, and Benchmark Capital. The company had raised $22 Million. Earlier this year, Yahoo unveiled new financial metric tracking revenue in its four key areas of growth: mobile, video, native, and social, or MaVeNS. The idea was to focus investors’ attention on the areas of the company that are growing while diverting their focus from its shrinking desktop display and search ads.

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.

Snapdeal acquires FreeCharge

India’s largest online marketplace, Snapdeal has acquired FreeCharge, India’s fastest growing mobile transaction platform. This is one of the biggest acquisitions in the history of Internet industry in India and sets up Snapdeal to build the most impactful digital commerce ecosystem in India.

With this acquisition, Snapdeal becomes the largest mobile commerce company in India offering the widest range of products and services, including financial services, mobile recharge and utility payments with an exponentially growing user base of over 40 Million. FreeCharge is India’s leading mobile ecommerce platform where users can pay their mobile DTH and utility payments across most major operators.

Every day 75 Million mobile recharges are done in India by a section of India’s 800 Million mobile phone subscribers. FreeCharge offers a convenient and efficient solution applicable to hundreds of millions of consumers for paying utility bills, and especially doing mobile recharges, which often ends up being the first e-commerce transaction that a consumer does online given the ticket size and instant gratification.

FreeCharge will continue to function as an independent platform and all aspects of FreeCharge Shopping experience will remain intact. The companies will collaborate to offer a seamless shopping experience to customers across both the platforms offering an even wider range of products and services. Over the past six months, Snapdeal has acquired Exclusively.in, Doozton, and Wishpicker. Snapdeal also picked up a majority stake in digital financial services platform RupeePower.com.

News Corp buys VCCircle

News Corporation is an American multinational mass media corporation headquartered in New York City. It was the second largest media group in 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world’s third largest in entertainment in 2009. VCCircle is an Indian Information services group with presence in online business news, data, events, and training for private equity and venture capital fund managers.

VCCircle currently employs about 100 people and is owned by the New Delhi headquartered Mosaic Ventures Private limited with offices in Noida, Mumbai, and Bangalore. The company is recently acquired by News Corp. This was the third investment of News Corp in India. It had previously invested in financial advisory start-up firm BigDecisions.com and realty portal PropTiger.com. News Corp had acquired all networks of VCCircle which includes VCCircle.com, Techcircle.in, VCCEdge, and VCCircle Training.

The VCCircle acquisition builds on News Corp recent digital investments in India. In November, News Corp acquired a 25 percent stake in PropTiger.com, India’s leading online residential real estate platform. In December, News Corp acquired Big Decisions.com, which aims to help Indian consumers make smarter financial decisions through interactive, decision making tools powered by sophisticated algorithms and data.

News Corp also has a presence in India through its Dow Jones, Wall Street Journal, and Harper Collins Publisher Business. News Corp is a global, diversified media, and information Services Company focused on creating and distributing authoritative and engaging content to consumers throughout the world. The company comprises business across a range of Media. 

Snapdeal buys Exclusively.com

Snapdeal aims to strengthen its fashion business, looking to touch $2 Billion in gross merchandise value in the fashion category this year. Online marketplace, Snapdeal acquired Exclusively.com, an online portal for premium and luxury fashion, for an undisclosed amount. Luxury products and services are a $14 Billion market in India, growing at 30% year on year. More than 70% consumers want to shop for luxury products in India.

The acquisition of Exclusively is similar to that of domestic e-commerce firm and Snapdeal rival, Flipkart acquiring online fashion retailer Myntra for an estimated Rs 2,000 crore deal in May last year, making it the biggest consolidation in the e-commerce space in India. The company has brought Exclusively.com to provide its over 40 Million users access to widest range of aspirational, high-end products and services.

Under this partnership, Exclusively.com will complement Snapdeal existing ecosystem and will provide a consolidated offering for the luxury and lifestyle shopper, making it India’s first online luxury mall. Luxury and premium fashion brands across the world can now open stores in Exclusively.com online luxury mall. Exclusively.com will continue to function as an independent site and all aspects of Exclusively.com online shopping experience will remain intact, with new collection and service augmentations in the pipeline.

The firm expects the luxury products portal to reach a GMV of USD 100 Million by 2015 end and USD 1 Billion in next three years. Exclusively.com today retails hundreds of India’s leading designers on its site, including Manish Malhotra, Tarun Tahiliani, Manish Arora, Ritu Kumar, and Varun Bahl. This year, Exclusively.com plans to launch leading international luxury brands and designers on the site. Snapdeal has so far risen over USD 1.5 Billion from a clutch of investors that include Japan Softbank and Ratan Tata.

Klarna Eyes Indian Shoppers

Klarna is a Sweden based e-commerce company that provides payment services for online storefronts. Their core service is to assume store claims for payments and handle customer payments, thus estimating the risk for seller and buyer. About 20% of all e-commerce sales in Sweden go through Klarna. The company has stores in seven countries in Europe. There is an office in Israel, which focuses on Research and Development.

European payment provider, which allows consumers to make online purchases using only their e-mail address and postcode with no registration or credit cards, is exploring the possibility of setting up business in India. The Stockholm based company is currently valued at around $1 Billion and active in 16 countries. The company was founded in 2005 by three students at Stockholm school of Economics and has 1,100 employees across the countries, which has its operations.

Klarna integrates the payment methods promising to make online shopping easier. About 35 Million customers have shopped from Klarna and company has 50,000 merchants. The company is focusing on removing friction and hassles from online buying. For using Klarna, there is no need to create an account or a password. Customers can shop using only their email address and postcode. The customers then confirm the purchase before choosing a payment method. Klarna has also introduced Pay after delivery as a Payment option, where the customer has 14 days to pay. This means the customer gets their goods and can make sure they are ok before paying. For this, Klarna gives full guarantee to the customers as well as merchants.

For every purchase, the company also performs a swift background check on customer information based on the speed at which they type their email address and postcode. Klarna claims to be the one of the fastest growing e-commerce companies in Europe and having a 10 percent market share of e-commerce in Northern Europe. Klarna is active in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, and the US.

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.