Milkbasket acquires Veggie India

Micro delivery startup Milkbasket has acquired Noida based online grocery venture Veggie India for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition would strengthen its distribution capabilities and grow its customer base to more than lakh households.

Ocado Garden Fresh Pvt Ltd, which operates Veggie India, was founded in January 2017. Veggie India, which operates a mobile app, helps users choose from more than 3,000 products including fruits and vegetables, organic products, packed and frozen food, beauty and hygiene products, and kitchen and household essentials. The app claims to have more than 5,000 users primarily from Noida and Ghaziabad.

The buyout comes months after Milkbasket raised $7 million (Rs 49 crore) in an extended Series A round led by US-based early-to-growth-stage venture capital firm Mayfield Advisors. Founded in 2015, Milkbasket currently has a presence in Delhi, Gurugram, Noida and Bengaluru.

Unlike bigger players in the online grocery delivery market such as BigBasket, Grofers, Amazon and Flipkart, Milkbasket positions itself as the online version of local mom-and-pop grocery stores but with more stock keeping units. It generally supplies perishable and non-perishable products that are bought in smaller quantities but with higher frequency.

McDonald acquires Dynamic Yield

American Fast Food Company, McDonald has entered into an agreement to acquire decision logic technology provider Dynamic Yield for $300 Million in an attempt to enhance customer experience and provide better personalized menus using digital technology.

This acquisition is an attempt to use personalized digital technology for better customer experience. It would enable the fast-food chain to customize the electronic menu boards' display of items, depending upon various factors such as weather, regional preferences and the time of day.

McDonald has emphasized on digital technology and has included self-order kiosks, digital menus boards and delivery services to boost the sales and to help it stand out among its competitors. This is the largest acquisition of the fast-food company and showcases the company's desires to use technology for speed growth in the ever-competitive restaurant industry.

Dynamic Yield has raised a total of $83.3 million from investors, including Innovation Endeavors, Bessemer Venture Partners and Marker Capital, as well as strategic backers like Naver (which owns the messaging apps Line and Snow), Baidu, The New York Times and Deutsche Telekom.

Spotify acquires Parcast

Spotify has announced the acquisition of Parcast as the company begins to explore the audio podcast arena for new content and business opportunities. This marks Spotify's third podcast-related acquisition in two months, and represents the company's ongoing plan to boost the music streaming platform as a hub for podcasts that can compete with Apple Podcasts.

Last month, Spotify purchased Gimlet Media for $300 million, acquiring the company's big-name podcasts like "Homecoming" and "Reply All." Around the same time, Spotify also purchased Anchor, a company that is more behind-the-scenes of the podcast world and lets its user’s record and create their own shows that can easily be shared online.

Parcast will be added to that list, and Spotify will now have ownership of its specialization in crime and mystery-themed podcast content, genres that are hugely successful in the market. Parcast is home to a big list of popular genres and podcasts, covering topics like cults, serial killers, haunted places, unexplained mysteries, extraterrestrials, and more. 

These purchased shows will also join new and original podcasts created by Spotify, all of which will be curated by the team that built Spotify's Discover Weekly playlist algorithm. Eventually, the music streaming company hopes to become the Netflix of podcasts, able to provide recommendations on what to watch and house both third-party and exclusive first-party content.

Netmeds acquires KiViHealth

Chennai based pharmaceuticals e-commerce portal Netmeds.com has announced the acquisition of another healthtech startup KiViHealth in a cash and stock deal. The Chennai-based company will invest about $10 Mn to integrate and grow KiViHealth business segment.

Ahmedabad-based KiViHealth is a clinic management platform, which helps patients to search and book doctor appointments, manage medical records, get notified on medicine schedule, and track their health timeline. Further, the startup uses artificial intelligence to give a chatbot like experience to its users and to maintain a health record for patients as well as doctors.

KiViHealth also serves the doctors through a digital prescription pad which allows doctors to generate digital prescriptions. The company was founded in 2015. KiViHealth claims to have enrolled over 3.1K hospitals and health centres, and in turn manages more than 2 Mn patient records, along with serving about 2K doctors through its website and mobile app.

NSEIT acquires cyber security company Aujas

NSEIT, the IT services focused subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange has acquired Aujas Networks Ltd., a company which provides information security consulting and IT risk management services.

Founded in 2008, Aujas has operations in India, the Middle East and North America. It employs about 400 cyber security professionals and has over 390 customers globally. The service portfolio includes information risk advisory, identity & access management, threat management and security analytics.

NSEIT currently provides technology solutions across industries such as capital markets, financial markets, banking and insurance. It also provides services relating to algorithmic trading (ultralow latency system), order management system exchange connectivity, Pre-trade and post-trade risk management, regulatory and compliance management, surveillance, exchange adapters, exchange simulator, and mobile trading.

According to data from Crunchbase, Aujas has raised $11 million since 2008 from a slew of early stage venture capital funds in India, including Chiratae Ventures (then known as IDG Ventures), IvyCap Ventures and Rajasthan Venture Capital fund. Aujas last raised $5.4 million from the 3 investors in 2013.

PayU to acquire Wibmo

Naspers owned Fintech Company PayU is looking to dominate the entire payments processes as it is in talks to acquire Bengaluru and Cupertino based Wibmo that specializes in processing online payments. The deal is reportedly expected to be $50 - $60 Million.

Wibmo offers its digital payment technology solutions and payment security in multiple countries including India. The company also offers 3D secure process of digital payments, which is the page where customers are asked to punch in their passwords or one-time passwords (OTPs) to authenticate digital transactions.

The company is certified by Mastercard, Visa, RuPay as well as PCI DSS and can therefore, process all forms of digital payments from cards to mobile based transactions.  PayU is doubling down on emerging fintech markets, and India is possibly the biggest geography for them. The company will be reportedly committing substantial capital for investments and acquisitions, particularly to build its credit and SMB lending businesses.

PayU has earmarked more than $1 Bn to deploy in India, as it bulks up its portfolio here inorganically. PayU India has emerged as one of the largest players in the online payments space after acquiring Citrus Payments in 2016. Since then, PayU has invested in digital lending startups like Zest Money, PaySense and Remitly.

Quikr to acquire Zefo

Online classifieds marketplace, Quikr is reportedly in talks to acquire Gurugram based used goods marketplace Zefo, for approximately $28.5 Million in an all-stock deal. Following the acquisition, Sequoia-backed Zefo will reportedly continue to operate as a separate entity.

Zefo was founded in 2015 manages its end-to-end operations, including product refurbishment and repairs of its sold products, in order to ensure a higher degree of standardization. In 2017, Zefo had raised $9.2 Mn (INR 60 Cr) in Series B funding. The round was led by prolific investors such as Sequoia India, Helion Venture Partners and Singapore-headquartered VC fund Beenext.

Founded in 2008, Bengaluru-based Quikr has followed an acquisition strategy to strengthen its various businesses and has acquired 14 startups till date including HDFC Developers, Commonfloor, Babajob, Hiree, Zimmber, and ZapLuk.

Quikr, which competes with OLX, Quikr and eBay, already hosts refurbished products advertisements on its platform but it does not offer repairs or delivery of the refurbished goods. The platform simply connects the buyer and seller, who then schedule the product pickup and payment among themselves.

Airbnb to buy HotelTonight

Airbnb Inc. agreed to buy HotelTonight, its biggest acquisition yet, in a move to increase hotel listings on the site. In early 2017, Airbnb acquired Luxury Retreats for about $300 million, its largest purchase at the time.

San Francisco-based HotelTonight offers last-minute hotel bookings, seeking to tap into unused inventory largely in urban areas, and the app has been a travel-industry darling since it launched in 2010.

The acquisition extends Airbnb’s reach even further into the hotel industry, where it has been a disruptive force since its launch just over a decade ago. Airbnb transformed the travel sector by persuading millions of people to open up their homes to strangers. It became such a market force that mainstream travel and hotel companies like Booking Holdings Inc. have been furiously spending to offer more home listings on their own sites.

Airbnb began highlighting hotels more prominently on its website and introduced a loyalty program, taking a step further onto the turf of its rivals. It more than doubled the number of rooms available in properties categorized as boutique hotels, bed-and-breakfasts, and other hospitality venues like hostels and resorts.

Zoho acquihires ePoise Systems

Chennai based SaaS startup, Zoho has acqui-hired an automated hiring product startup, ePoise Systems, for an undisclosed amount. The deal also included the acquisition of ePoise intellectual property rights.

ePoise Systems was founded in 2013. The Bengaluru-based startup offers an automated hiring software product targeted at mass recruiting companies. The product also has a series of pre-designed screening steps for various company profiles. Along with a set of assessments which finally lead to an automated video interview.

Indian startup, Zoho has more than 40 integrated online applications aiding multiple business operations such as sales and marketing, finance, email and collaboration, information technology and help desk, human resources and custom solutions like app creator and analytics.

The firm over 45 million users and has been expanding its product portfolio over the last several years. It offers its product separately as well as under a single user license as Zoho One. Manage Engine, a division of Zoho, helps its customers with on-premise IT management.

Zomato to sell UAE business to Delivery Hero

Berlin based food delivery player Delivery Hero has acquired United Arab Emirates (UAE) business of Gurugram based food delivery and restaurant discovery company, Zomato.

The acquisition will add 1.2 Mn monthly orders and $2 Mn monthly revenue to Delivery Hero’s Middle East and North Africa region business and will strengthen its leadership position in the UAE. The online food ordering company Delivery Hero is present across 41 countries in Europe, the Middle East & North Africa (MENA), Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region. Delivery Hero also operates its own delivery service primarily in over 200 cities around the world. In India, Delivery Hero was invested in Foodpanda but later sold it for 1% stake in Ola in 2017.

UAE was the first global foray of Zomato in 2012 and soon accounted for 20% of its orders. The company also launched its premium service Zomato Gold in UAE in 2017 and in one year had over 380 restaurant partners for over 15,000 Zomato Gold members.

Zomato has been in a tough situation since its Bengaluru-based rival Swiggy raised $1 Bn in 2018, at the end to the year after joining the unicorn club earlier in the year. To challenge this, Zomato has also been in talks to raise a large funding round of $500 Mn-$1 Bn. Zomato recorded $1Bn in annual gross merchandise value. It also posted a 40% growth in its revenue for FY18 and targeted expansion to 100 cities across India.

Pine Labs in talks to buy Qwikcilver

New Delhi based online retail payments platform Pine Labs is in talks to acquire Bengaluru digital gift card firm Qwikcilver Solutions, as the former looks to creating a strong footing in the gifting space.

Pine Labs is looking to acquire Qwikcilver for over $100 Mn in a mix of cash and stock deal. Once the acquisition deal materializes, the existing investors in the company are expected to cash out, while the founders of the company may stay on with the team. Launched in 2008, Qwikcilver helps retail and corporate customers to enhance their sales, brand and loyalty through card-based interventions such as Gift Cards, Loyalty Cards, Discount Cards, Frequency Cards and Credit Cards. It also provides a cloud-drive software-as-a-service for various brands.

The company claimed to have handled gift-card transactions worth INR 3K Cr ($422 Mn) with 160 Mn transactions in 2016. In the same year, Qwikcilver had raised undisclosed funding led by Sistema Asia Fund, the proprietary fund of Russian conglomerate Sistema. Prior to that, Amazon had invested $10 Mn in Qwikcilver Solutions. Overall, the company is believed to have raised $20 Mn. It also counts Accel Partners and Helion Venture Partners among its investors.

The acquisition of Qwikcilver may give Pine Labs an edge in offering gift cards to small-and medium-sized stores with card payment facilities. The Indian gift card market is expected to reach $80 Bn – $85 Bn by 2024. Of which, e-gift cards are expected to account for a lion’s share with $70 Bn. Pine Labs was launched in 1998. The Sequoia Capital-backed fintech company counts many large corporates among its clients. It provides an integrated payment gateway services to its partners. It claimed to be processing about 450 Mn transactions worth over $15 Bn annually, as of March 2018.

Oyo in talks to acquire FreshMenu

Gurugram based hospitality chain OYO Hotels and Homes is in talks to acquire Bengaluru based cloud Kitchen startup FreshMenu in a deal worth $50 Mn - $60 Mn. FreshMenu shareholder Zodius Capital may be paid in cash while, the founders and investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and GrowthStory will be allocated Oyo shares, if the deal is finalized.

If the deal goes through successfully, Oyo will make its foray into online food delivery business. The move is said to enhance its hospitality business portfolio and food is an essential element to its operations. Bengaluru-based FreshMenu had been looking to raise capital for the last few months. The deal is being considered as a win-win proposition for both the companies.

Oyo is building a food team, which will help FreshMenu expand to more cities under the Oyo brand name. The idea could be more about adding the element of food to further build the hospitality business rather than getting into the food delivery entirely.

FreshMenu clocks about 15,000-20,000 orders daily and if Oyo acquires the startup kitchen, it will leverage highly on the company's infrastructure of 170,000 rooms across India. Oyo's advanced rounds of these discussions with FreshMenu follow after it recently rose close to $1 billion from Japan's SoftBank with participation from ride-hailing companies Grab and Didi Chuxing taking up its valuation to $5 billion.

Apple buys Pullstring

Apple agreed to buy Pullstring, a startup that enables the design and publishing of voice apps, as the tech giant seeks to compete more effectively with Amazon and Google in voice empowered apps. A group of former Pixar executives founded Pullstring in 2011 to make interactive voice apps for toys before expanding into Internet of Things (IoT) products.

Pullstring makes software tools for voice apps, and artificial intelligence to power those experiences and toys such as Mattel’s talking Barbie and Thomas the Tank Engine toys. The company was criticized in 2015 for creating “child surveillance devices,” but said its products had security features to protect privacy

Pullstring technology may help Apple to strengthen ties with app creators and gain broader developer support for Siri, which is critical for offering voice-enabled services that will encourage consumers to use its virtual assistant. Apple pioneered voice-enabled technology with the introduction of its Siri virtual assistant more than seven years ago, but the company has fallen behind Amazon and Google in voice-powered platforms like smart speakers that work as hubs for connected homes.

Amazon has a 70% share of the U.S. smart-speaker market with its Echo devices. Google Home trails with 24% of the installed base while Apple's HomePod is a distant third with only 6% of the market. Apple risks losing out on the growing market for IoT devices and services without a stronger presence in smart speakers.

Byju acquired Osmo

Tencent backed online learning platform Byju is looking to leverage Osmo, the Silicon Valley startup it recently acquired for $120 Million, to build capabilities in technologies such as computer vision and artificial intelligence.

Osmo, founded by former Googlers specializes in using computer vision for creating blended learning games for kids. While the startup will be able to leverage Byju’s content, the Bengaluru-based firm will get access to Osmo’s tech smarts.  Computer vision is an interdisciplinary scientific field in which computers are trained to extract, analyze and understand digital images or videos, with the intent of replicating what humans can do.

Byju’s DNA is predominantly offline (and content), and even today a bulk of their distribution remains offline. Osmo will help the company develop a tech lens in the product offering. Osmo’s technology can today detect shapes, numbers, letters and even images of characters and objects in relatively real-time, but going forward it says this capability will grow. Imagine a biology classroom where students get step-by-step instructions on how to dissect a frog from software that is watching their every move.

The startup will continue refining its machine vision tools and will add more members to its team to speed up the development of advanced capabilities. Today, Osmo’s software is only trained to recognize pre-programmed images, but in the future, it could make sense of something it is seeing for the first time and throw up relevant content for the student.

Delhivery acquires Aramex

Gurugram based logistics provider for ecommerce companies, Delhivery, has acquired the India Business of Dubai based logistics firm Aramex for an undisclosed amount. Aramex provides logistics for major ecommerce companies such as Amazon India. In 2016, the company had invested in online hyperlocal Delhivery service for restaurants Grab.in, and Jaipur intra-city B2B logistics service provider, Logisure.

Delhivery will now take over Aramex India’s pick-up and delivery shipment operations. However, Aramex will continue to focus on its global competencies of express and freight and will continue the international business in the country. Delhivery was founded in 2011. As of December 2018, the company claimed to be catering its logistics service in more than 600 cities with 12 fulfillment centres for B2C and B2B services.

The startup, which counts Carlyle and Tiger Global as investors, works with ecommerce companies such as Flipkart and Paytm. Speculation was rife earlier that Japan’s SoftBank Vision Fund is reportedly looking to acquire 37.87% stake in Delhivery, and has reportedly sought approval from the Competition Commission of India (CCI).

Logistics is the brain behind the supply chain industry. Over the years, startups in this sector have come up with innovative new technologies with logistics-related software solutions, last-mile delivery, robotics, automation solutions. Indian logistics sector is currently valued at $160 Bn and is poised to hit $215 Bn by 2020.

ShopX acqui-hires GabbarDeals

Bengaluru based ShopX, a business to business e-commerce platform for small traders, has acqui-hired GabbarDeals, an omnichannel mobile phone retail brand.

The acquisition gives ShopX the assets, including stores and brand partnerships, of GabbarDeals, allowing it to expand its organized retail operations beyond Tier 1 cities in India. It will launch ShopX Edge, a chain of technology-powered mobile and electronic stores in Maharashtra, where GabbarDeals has a strong offline presence.

GabbarDeals sold phones of different brands online and offline as well. It had stores in Pune and Jalgaon with digitally enhanced features. The company claims to have achieved gross merchandise value (GMV) of Rs 1,000 crore across five years for its mobiles and electronics products.

Run by 10i Commerce Services Pvt. Ltd, ShopX was founded in 2014 by Sharma and Apoorva Jois, who had earlier founded Go Untucked, a startup in the fashion apparel segment. The B2B venture helps local kirana stores and small retailers conduct transactions on a single platform. ShopX primarily operates in three categories, food and groceries, digital and electronic services.

The company has more than 50,000 retailers on its network and currently is present in 300 towns and cities across India. It has three streams of revenue—a small, one-time fee whenever a retailer signs up, a transactional margin on sales from consumer brands on their network and revenues from marketing and brand building activities.

Swiggy acquires AI start-up Kint.io

Online food delivery start-up Swiggy has made its first acqui-hire in the deep technology space through an AI start-up Kint.io for an undisclosed amount. As part of this, the founding team of Kint.io will join Swiggy.

The Bengaluru-headquartered company, which is also foraying into the hyperlocal delivery space, will join Swiggy to boost its computer vision technology and elevate consumer experience. The acqui-hire development comes just a few months after the company closed its mammoth funding round of $1 billion, which was led by Naspers and saw participation from China’s Tencent Holdings.

The round saw Swiggy’s valuation shoot up to $3.3 billion. The company had been on the lookout to close a few acquisitions following the funding round. Founded in 2014, Kint.io applies deep learning and computer vision to object recognition in video. Prior to this, Swiggy had made an acquisition in the food-delivery space through a buyout of on-demand delivery start-up Scootsy in August

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As consumer internet companies in India are growing and raising money, importance is being given to building a more robust technology stack for an enhanced experience. In August, Flipkart acquired AI-led speech recognition start-up Liv.ai as they looked at elevating consumer experience of the next 200 million shoppers. Following this, the Walmart-backed company also acquired Upstream, an analytics company from Israel, in a bid to deliver real-time pricing and product analytics to the platform’s sellers.

Paytm buys Nightstay

Digital payment company Paytm has launched domestic hotel bookings on its platform and has acquired last-minute hotel bookings app Nightstay to expand its travel business. The company will invest upwards of Rs 500 crore for scaling the hotel booking business and expanding its portfolio.

Nightstay Travels Pvt. Ltd was founded in 2015. It procures unsold inventory from hotel owners at a discount and offers the rooms under three categories – boutique, business class and luxury class hotels. It operates on dynamic pricing for partner hotels with inventory being made available for booking every morning. Users can book their stay for up to three days at one go and avail the last-minute deal. It works with hotels in 12 cities across the country.

Paytm aims to leverage Nightstay to expand its portfolio in this vertical. Nightstay had raised an undisclosed amount in a pre-Series A round led by the Indian Angel Network and LetsVenture in May 2017. In August 2015, it had raised $500,000 in a seed round from Bedrock Venture Management Pvt. Ltd.

Paytm Travel, started in 2014, claims to sell over 60 million tickets a year, and offers rail and bus tickets, and flight bookings. Earlier this year, Paytm Travel also started offering foreign exchange bookings for international travellers. The company said it has partnered with over 5,000 hotels across the budget, luxury and business segments. Its partner hotels include Zuri, Sarovar, Treebo, Vresorts, Sterling, Ginger and Bloomrooms.

Google to Fossil Smartwatch Tech

Google and watchmaker Fossil group announced an agreement for the search giant to acquire some of Fossil Smartwatch technology and members of the research and development division responsible for creating it. The deal is worth roughly $40 million, and under the current terms Fossil will transfer a “portion” of its R&D team, the portion directly responsible for the intellectual property being sold, over to Google.

As a result, Google will now have a dedicated team with hardware experience working internally on its WearOS software platform and potentially on new smartwatch designs as well. It’s unclear what exactly that innovation is, or why exactly Google is so eager to buy it, although $40 million is a drop in the bucket for Google when it comes to acquisition costs.

Fossil has been Google’s most consistent and long-term hardware partner on WearOS, since back when it was named Android Wear and Google was looking for watchmakers to help it rival Apple in the wearable space. Fossil has specialized in what are known as hybrid smartwatches: devices that do some minor smart features like step-tracking and notifications, but otherwise look and feel like your standard, semi-expensive wristwatch.

The company makes smartwatches with touchscreens that resemble other WearOS devices and the Apple Watch, but its strong suit has always been the hybrid watch, given Fossil’s design and manufacturing experience in the traditional accessories market. The issue there, however, is that Fossil, while making some of the nicest-looking smartwatches, has been slow to adopt technologies like GPS and heart-rate tracking that have existed on other wearables for years. So in this case, Fossil may have cracked something having to do with hybrid watches, but we just don’t know yet.

Byju acquires US based Osmo

Online tutoring start-up Byju’s has acquired US based playful learning system Osmo for $120 Million. The acquisition, Byju’s first ever of a US company, will help the Indian start-up expand into a new younger demographic of kids between 3 and 8, and allow it to tap into Osmo’s physical-to-digital technology and content.

Byju’s has aggressive plans for the international market and will continue to make big investments in technology to further personalize learning for students. It has been growing at 100% over the past three years and is on target to triple revenue to Rs 1,400 crore this year.

Just last month, Byju’s raised $540 million at a valuation of $3.6 billion, as robust investor demand swelled the size of its latest funding round and turned the founder of the eponymous start-up into an overnight billionaire. That funding round put Byju’s fourth on the list of India’s most valuable start-ups, after digital payments firm Paytm (One97 Communications Ltd), cab-hailing service Ola and budget hotel chain Oyo Rooms.

The focus at Byju’s has been on creating engaging, immersive content offered through personalized learning experiences to students across grades. Osmo’s use of mixed reality interactions can help it expand its platform to new audiences and applications. Launched in 2015, the Byju’s Learning App currently offers personalized programs for school students across grades 4-12. It has over 2 million annual paid subscriptions and 30 million students cumulatively learning from the app.