Bengaluru: Amazon Technologies Inc., part of Amazon.com Inc., has acquired retail tech startup Perpule in an all cash-deal of ₹107.6 crore to bolster its play in the kirana-tech space in India, according to regulatory filings.
Amazon is expected to pay additional remuneration to Bengaluru-based Perpule’s employees, which may bump up the overall deal value to around ₹150 crores, according to two individuals aware of the discussion.
With this, Amazon plans to up its ante in the kirana-tech space as it would now leverage Perpule’s cloud-based point-of-sale (PoS) offering ‘UltraPoS’ and offer new suite of technology products to its kirana partners, while digitising neighborhood stores.
The acquisition is expected to provide Perpule’s investors an exit with 4x-5x returns. The four-year old startup has raised close to $4.7 million till date from Prime Venture Partners, Kalaari Capital, Venture Highway and Taxiforsure co-founder Raghunandan G.
Most of its employees are expected to join Amazon including co-founders Abhinav Pathak, Saketh BSV and Yogesh Ghaturle, said one person mentioned above.
Mint accessed the regulatory filings filed by Perpule with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
UltraPoS, which is Perpule’s primary product is a full-fledged store management solution that helps small businesses digitally manage and automate inventory, purchase orders from distributors, customer billings.
An Amazon India spokesperson confirmed the news and said that Perpule’s cloud POS will help offline stores of all sizes manage their operations better.
“Perpule has built an innovative cloud-based POS offering that enables offline stores in India to better manage their inventory, checkout process, 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,” said an Amazon spokesperson.
Perpule co-founder Abhinav Pathak declined to comment on the development.
Last year, Amazon launched ‘Smart Stores’ to help offline retailers digitize their inventory, while allowing them to launch digital store fronts on its app. It has also scaled its ‘Local Shops’ program to 50,000 offline retailers in March and plans to double that by year-end.
The acquisition of Perpule may also help Amazon further digitise in-store inventory of offline retailers and list them on Amazon app.
Perpule’s ‘UltraPoS’, which had close to 10,000 store and retail partners across India, South-east Asia and UAE, as of last year, also provides core analytics for retailers to help them understand customer demographic and purchase patterns at outlets. Close to 60% of the product’s customer base are international clients including Matahari Retail in Indonesia and Landmark Group in Malaysia.
Last year, the startup had launched its white label e-commerce solution ‘StoreSe’ to provide an end-to-end technology backend and ordering solution to offline brick and mortar retailers, to help establish their presence online.
Mint couldn’t ascertain whether UltraPoS’s merchant base will be absorbed by Amazon, and whether Perpule will continue to operate its StoreSe platform.
“Currently the focus seems to be on the integration of Perpule’s POS product. Whether customers will move to the new integrated product platform is a call which Amazon may take eventually. The focus of the acquisition will be on Indian retailers for now,” said the second person, on condition of anonymity.
Prime Venture Partners, Kalaari Capital and Venture Highway did not respond to queries.
India’s kirana-tech ecosystem has seen heightened competition from new age players including Khatabook, OkCredit and Dukaan.
Recently Mint reported that Khatabook acquired accounting software Biz Credit to equip kirana partners automatic reconciliation and digital invoicing capabilites. It also looks to launch credit and insurance for retail partners. Biz Credit’s acquisition would also help Khatabook’s retail store base with commerce capabilities, helping procure inventory digitally from distributors.
