Indian e-commerce market heats up with new acquisition

Snapdeal, one of India’s most profitable e-commerce marketplaces, has announced the acquisition of Hyderabad-based mobile technology start-up MartMobi.

MartMobi, which has a relatively small team of 15 people, specialises in enabling seamless connectivity with customers’ existing back-end systems in addition to a real-time analytics engine to improve conversions and user engagement. The value of the deal is currently undisclosed.

‘‘We are focusing on mobile platform as about 75% of orders are coming from mobile-based devices. On the merchant side too, we are witnessing similar trends. The MartMobi team is a great addition as it will help strengthen the platform for sellers,’’ commented Rohit Bansal, co-founder and COO of Snapdeal.

It’s extremely likely that MartMobi will be completely integrated into Snapdeal. The company’s website is currently unavailable, with its home page only revealing news of the acquisition. Bansal was particularly coy when asked about the future of MartMobi as an independent company.

‘‘We are still working on the roadmap ahead. But their expertise will definitely be integrated with our platform,’’ said Bansal.

The purchase of MartMobi is just one of many deals that Snapdeal has been involved in. In April, Snapdeal bought mobile recharge platform FreeCharge in a cash and stock deal worth up to $450m. In the same month, the online store bought a majority stake in digital financial services platform RupeePower in order to create a financial services marketplace.

These acquisitions are all part of Snapdeal’s plan to stay ahead of its competitors. The Indian e-commerce industry is worth $12.6bn and the market is dominated by Snapdeal, Amazon and Flipkart. Payment Eye recently reported that Flipkart aim to be doubling the value of its goods to $8bn in the next year.

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