Instamojo acquires Times Internet arm in USD 5 mn deal

Digital platform Instamojo has acquired Getmeashop, the e-commerce platform from Times Internet focused on small units, in an all-stock deal under which the Times Group firm becomes an investor in the Bengaluru-based startup. The all-stock deal is valued at USD 5 million, of which almost 80 per cent is the acquisition cost paid by Instamojo backed by Kalaari Capital, Blume Ventures among others, and the rest is being paid by Times Internet, which will also get a board seat in Instamojo, sources told PTI.

Through this maiden acquisition, Instamojo, set up in 2012, seeks to expand its digital solution offerings to empower its over 1 million merchant base, Instamojo said in a statement on Wednesday. Instamojo is a one-stop shop for small entrepreneurs, founded by Sampad Swain, Akash Gehani and Aditya Sengupta.

Instamojo early this year raised series B funds from Gunosy Capital, the Japanese payments firm Anypay. In November 2014, it had raised USD2.6 million in series A funding from Kalaari Capital, Blume Ventures, 500Startups and others. Prior to that, it had raised around USD 5 lakh from 500 Startups, Blume Ventures and angel investors Rajan Anandanan among  others.

Instamojo helps small and medium enterprises to start, manage, and grow their businesses online. It also offer credit products and logistics services. "With this acquisition, the Instamojo suite of offerings will expand to enable business owners with web presence tools to start, manage and grow in the rapidly growing tech ecosystem," Sampad Swain, the co-founder of Instamojo said.

With digitisation challenges faced by MSMEs are beyond just digital payments as they also face problems in accessing credit, competition from e-commerce platforms and cash-flow issues, he noted. Getmeashop is a SaaS platform helping MSMEs adopt and leverage technology without any prior technical know-how.

On integrating with Instamojo, Pushkal Srivastava, founder of Getmeashop said, with a common mission to enable MSMEs, this partnership which gives us distribution specific to the target segments.

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