Most of the retail-tech firm’s staff including co-founders Abhinav Pathak, Saketh BSV and Yogesh Ghaturle is expected to join
Amazon Technologies Inc., which is a part of Amazon.com Inc., has made an all cash-deal of Rs. 107.6 crore to acquire the retail-tech start-up Perpule for bolstering its play in the kirana-tech space, according to regulatory filings.
The overall deal value may bump up to around Rs. 150 crore, Amazon is expected to pay additional remuneration to Bengaluru-based retail-tech firm, according to two individuals aware of the discussion.
As Amazon now would leverage Perpule’s cloud-based point-of-sale (PoS) offering ‘UltraPoS’ and offer a new suite of technology products to partners in the retail-tech sector, the firm plans to up its game in the kirana-tech space, while digitizing neighbourhood stores.
Perpule’s investors, by this acquisition are expected to get an exit with 4X to 5X returns. The four-year old retail-tech start-up, from prime venture partners – Kalaari Capital, Venture Highway and Taxiforsure co-founder Raghunandan G. has raised funds close to $4.7 million till date.
Most of the retail-tech firm’s staff including co-founders Abhinav Pathak, Saketh BSV and Yogesh Ghaturle is expected to join Amazon.
Involved in helping small businesses digitally manage and automate inventory, purchase orders from distributors, and billings, Perpule’s primary product – UltraPoS, is a full-fledged store management solution.
An Amazon India spokesperson confirming the acquisition, said Perpule’s cloud POS will help offline stores of all sizes manage their operations better. The spokesperson said, “Perpule has built an innovative cloud-based POS offering that enables offline stores in India to better manage their inventory, checkout processes, and overall customer experience. We are excited to have the Perpule team join us to focus on providing growth opportunities for businesses of all sizes in India while raising the bar of the shopping experience for Indian customers”.
To help offline retailers digitize their inventory and allow them to launch digital store fronts on its app, Amazon had launched ‘Smart Stores’ last year.
It also scaled its ‘Local Shops’ programme to 50,000 offline retailers in March, which is planned to double by the year-end. To digitize in-store inventory of offline retailers and list them on the Amazon app, the acquisition of the retail-tech firm may help Amazon.
To help retailers understand customer demographics and purchase patterns at outlets, Perpule’s UltraPoS, which had close to 10,000 store and retail partners across India, South-east Asia and the UAE as of last year, also provides core analytics for retailers. Close to 60% of the product’s customer base are international clients including Matahari Retail in Indonesia and Landmark Group in Malaysia.
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