Amazon Technologies Inc., part of Amazon.com Inc., has acquired retail tech firm Perpule in an all cash-deal of over Rs 107 crore to strengthen its efforts in the area of providing technology to kiranas, according to the sources.
People in the know said that Amazon is expected to pay additional remuneration to the employees of the Bengaluru-based firm which may increase the deal value to about Rs 150 crore.
Perpule was launched in 2016 by Abhinav Pathak, Saketh BSV, and Yogesh Ghaturle. While Pathak and Ghaturle are alumni of the National Institute of Technology, Surathkal, Saketh is from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. It has raised total funding of $6.4 million from investors such as Prime Venture Partners, Kalaari Capital and Venture Highway. The founders would continue to remain at the firm, according to the sources.
Perpule provides UltraPOS is a cloud-based, mobile POS system that substantially improves the billing and checkout process at stores. The cloud-based SaaS product eliminates the need for bulky servers and computers in the store. It enables offline stores to reduce billing counter size significantly and help increase sales and revenue through an AI and data-driven approach. It was being used by retail brands such as Vishal Mega Mart, Big Bazaar, More and Spencer’s.
Amazon on Tuesday night confirmed that it has acquired Perpule’s cloud-based point-of-sale IP asset called Ultra POS.
“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,” said an Amazon spokesperson. “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.”
Amazon is backing Perpule at a time when it is betting big on the digitisation of small business including kiranas and neighbourhood stores. Amazon has enabled the digitisation of more than 1 million small and medium businesses (SMBs) in India. Last year alone, more than 150,000 new sellers joined its marketplace platform. This makes it one of the biggest examples of tech adoption of small businesses in the country. The Covid-19 pandemic has also accelerated the adoption of tech by SMBs.
The SMBs include sellers, delivery and logistics partners, neighbourhood stores, enterprises, developers, content creators and authors in India, according to the 2020 Amazon SMB Impact Report.
Last year, Jeff Bezos-led Amazon had pledged to invest $1 billion to digitise 10-million SMBs, enable e-commerce exports worth $10 billion, and create 1 million incremental jobs by 2025.
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