Shopclues acquired by Singapore based Qoo10

Three years after achieving unicorn status, online marketplace Shopclues that has been struggling to survive in the competitive e-commerce space in India, has merged with Singapore headquartered e-commerce platform Qoo10 Pte Ltd, in an all-stock deal.

ShopClues has received a very small cash infusion from (Singapore-based) Qoo10 Pte Ltd along with the full stock merger deal, to keep the company (ShopClues) afloat. Qoo10 has a strong presence in the Southeast Asia market, and their acquisition of ShopClues in India also in line with its proposed IPO plans, as it looks to grow its market base, as well as the seller base.

Founded in 2011, the Gurugram-headquartered ShopClues joined the billion-dollar club in January 2016, when it raised a round of funding led by sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte Ltd, along with participation from existing investors Tiger Global and Nexus Venture Partners.

In May this year, Snapdeal is believed to have carried out due diligence for a potential acquisition of ShopClues. However, the deal did not go through. Two months later, ShopClues reportedly laid off around 150-200 employees, across various departments.

EarlySalary buys CashCare

Pune based online lender EarlySalary has acquired Mumbai headquartered startup CashCare, which gives consumer loans through non-banking financial companies, for an undisclosed amount.

CashCare analyses a user’s shopping and wallet data to instantly convert online purchases into EMI-based loans without credit card. This is known as checkout finance. The company has partnered 30 companies whose products the user can purchase, such as MakeMyTrip, ShopClues, Byju’s and HP. For financing the loans, it has partnered non-banking financial companies.

Owned and operated by Social Worth Technologies Pvt. Ltd, EarlySalary was founded in 2015. The three-year-old startup offers a mobile app that allows salaried individuals to avail instant loans for an average tenure of 30 days or till the next salary cycle. Users can avail these loans in the form of salary advances or credit card cash withdrawals. The mobile app is available on both Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

The company claims to be doing about 25,000 loans a month, disbursing about Rs 60 crore monthly. In its most recent fundraising, the Pune-based company raised Rs 100 crore ($15.7 million) in a Series B round led by Eight Roads Ventures India in January. Existing investors IDG Ventures India, Dewan Housing Finance Corp. Ltd. (DHFL) and Ashok Agarwal, director of forex and money transfer services firm Transcorp International Limited, also participated in the round.

FlexiLoans acquires CreditPeriod

Online lending platform FlexiLoans has acquired Mumbai based supply chain finance startup, CreditPeriod for an undisclosed amount. With this move, FlexiLoans attempts to strengthen its supply chain finance offering.

Founded in 2015 by CreditPeriod initially functioned as a B2B ecommerce platform catering to the raw material procurement needs of SMEs. Now a fintech startup, it allows SME buyers to procure goods/services on credit while ensuring that sellers get their money upfront, thereby eliminating credit risk and enabling instant liquidity.

FlexiLoans started operations in January 2016 and was founded by four Indian School of Business alumni. FlexiLoans’ proprietary credit engine allows the startup to disburse a loan within 24 hours. It has already partnered with over 20 national digital marketplaces and organizations like Flipkart, Ola, ShopClues and Jabong etc. The company plans to double loan disbursal in the next one year and tap 200 cities.

As per an IBEF report, the fintech market in India is estimated to double to $2.4 Bn by 2020 from around $1.2 Bn at present. In February 2017, Bengaluru-based online lending platform Capital Float raised about $2.5 Mn (INR 17 Cr) from IFMR Capital Finance and its alternative investment fund. Earlier this month, Pune-based fintech startup EarlySalary rose $4 Mn Series A funding from IDG Ventures India (IDGVI) and Dewan Housing Finance Corp Ltd (DHFL). Other startups in this segment include KountMoney, Faircent.com, LoanCircle, Capzest, etc.

Paytm acqui-hires Shopsity

Paytm, India’s largest mobile payments and commerce platform has acquired the team at Shopsity, a Delhi based startup that offered O2O solutions to small retail stores. This move is in line with Paytm vision to create strong seller focused services to its offline merchants.

Shopsity is focused on small unorganized retailers, providing them with tools to attract and retain customers. Paytm is actively working to strengthen seller services for the 800,000 strong offline sellers on the Paytm ecosystem. Launched in March 2015, Shopsity is an O2O mobile platform, where you get to see what’s selling in stores nearby. During July last year, the platform had raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Shopclues and Droom, and Netprice.

In July, Paytm started accepting payments at retail chains like Spencer’s Retail, Heritage Fresh, More, WH Smith, Kendriya Bhandar, V2 Retail, Value Plus and Pai International (Pai Mobile). This followed its tie-up with quick-service-restaurants such as KFC, Pizza Hut, Cafe Coffee Day, Costa Coffee, Barista, Vaango, among others. Paytm claims to have 125 million wallets.

In September, Paytm had acqui-hired EduKart, an e-learning marketplace for an undisclosed amount. In January this year, Paytm acquired Shifu, a consumer behavior prediction platform for an undisclosed amount. A month before that, the company acquired Gurgaon-based services marketplace Near.in for $2 million.

Shopclues to buy Mobile Payments start-up Momoe

Online shopping platform Shopclues.com is in advanced talks to buy mobile payments firm Momoe Technologies, as it looks to add a payment service to its platform. The all-stock deal, could value Bengaluru based Momoe at anywhere between $8 Million and $15 Million.

Shopclues was looking to invest close to $50 Million in either buying stakes or acquiring start-ups in the Hyperlocal, ad-tech and internet payments domains in order to accelerate expansion in India’s fast growing e-commerce market. Shopclues will use Momoe Technology to strengthen its payment network for merchants on its platform and will further integrate it with its hyperlocal commerce business.

During the past 12-18 months, large e-commerce firms have made investments, acquisitions and partnerships with payments companies to claim a share of the digital payments vertical, which helps reduce the dependency on cash and makes it convenient for online shopping. In February, Amazon announced acquisition of online payments firm Emvantage Payments Pvt. Ltd.

Snapdeal acquired mobile wallet firm FreeCharge in April 2015, and Flipkart bought payments services company FX Mart Pvt. Ltd in August 2015. Momoe was founded in 2014. The company primarily provides payment solutions for offline merchants. It allows customers to make digital payments using the Momoe app on their mobile phones. Momoe rose close to $1.2 Million from IDG Ventures India, Jungle Ventures and India Quotient. India’s e-commerce market is estimated to touch $100 Billion by April 2020.