Flipkart close to third acquisition this year

Bengaluru: Flipkart Ltd is close to making its third acquisition this year by buying mobile app marketing start-up DSYN Technologies Pvt. Ltd, as India’s largest e-commerce firm seeks to improve and expand its technology capabilities to capture a shift in customers’ shopping preference toward mobiles from desktop computers and laptops.

add_main_imageFlipkart plans to invest in or acquire more than 15 start-ups this year as it seeks to add to its own offerings and also build a venture capital firm-like portfolio of investments, Mint reported on 29 December. Flipkart bought a stake in marketplace and auctions start-up WeHive Technologies Pvt. Ltd in January and purchased mobile advertising firm AdIQuity Technologies Pvt. Ltd this month.

Now, Flipkart is in advanced talks to buy DSYN Technologies, which has received funding from venture capital firm SAIF Partners and former Facebook Inc. executive Prashant Malik, among others, four people familiar with the matter said.NextMAds

DSYN has a product called Appiterate that helps clients increase downloads of their mobile apps and drive higher spending on apps by targeting users more efficiently. Appiterate, which specializes in sending notifications and marketing messages on apps, also helps companies design their apps.

Snapdeal, Flipkart’s largest local rival, is one of Appiterate’s clients and it had also expressed an interest in buying the start-up, the four people cited above said. However, Flipkart moved faster than Snapdeal and offered better terms, the people said.

Both Flipkart and Snapdeal are competing aggressively for attractive acquisitions that can help them improve their mobile offerings.

“The deal is at a very advanced stage. Appiterate will help Flipkart do more targeted marketing on its app—that’s the main reason they’re buying it,” said one of the people cited above, who works with DSYN.

Mint couldn’t ascertain the size of the potential transaction.

DSYN and Flipkart didn’t respond to emails seeking comment. Snapdeal declined to comment.sixthMAds

Flipkart has been aggressively acquiring companies over the past five months. The company, which received nearly $2 billion in funds from investors last year, hired Nishant Verman from venture capital firm Canaan Partners to head its M&A team in July. Since then, it has already made three acquisitions.

The company’s latest acquisition, if completed, is another move to improve its mobile commerce efforts. Flipkart already generates more than 65% of its traffic from the mobile.

Last week, Flipkart hired former Google Inc. executive Punit Soni as head of products, partly to help the company improve its mobile app and accelerate its push into mobile commerce and move sales away from desktop-based platforms.

Flipkart co-founder and chief executive officer Sachin Bansal has held discussions about shutting the company’s mobile site and its website to move sales entirely toward the mobile app, Mint reported last week. Bansal has discussed the possibility of moving technology executives off the website team and move them to its app business.

Although these plans are not formalized and it’s unclear whether Flipkart will risk losing sales through the desktop, a majority of Flipkart’s new hires, especially in technology, will be recruited for the company’s push in mobile.

India is expected to have more than 500 million Internet users by 2018 from roughly 200 million currently, and a majority of these users will access the Internet on their smartphones, according to estimates by analysts.