Online furniture marketplace MebelKart has acquired the crowd bargaining platform 53central.com for an undisclosed amount. Post acquisition, founder Josy Mathew will join MebelKart as the head of business development, along with the rest of the team. 53central used to provide group buying options for sports goods, for example a group of 20 kids deciding to buy cricket bats together would help the company drive costs down during product acquisition, subsequently enabling it to provide cheaper prices on the bats. It looks like the service has been shut down, as 53central.com now redirects to MebelKart. MebelKart will use the acquisition to provide its own group buying services in the furniture category. The company has not yet provided a timeline for it but mentions that, “Group Buying is expected to become phenomenally large in case of the furniture and interior design industries. This acquisition will enable us to further strengthen our position in these sectors.” Interestingly, according to MebelKart, it will look at more acquisitions and acquihires in the future to expand to global markets. Note that just last month, MebelKart raised $20 million from local search listing platform AskMe, which would be invested in the company over the next three quarters in return for a majority stake exceeding 75%. The investment would help AskMe acquire a share in the furniture marketplace category. Interestingly, at the time the company mentioned that it would continue operating separately, with plans to merge into AskMe’s transaction platform in the future. In the meantime, AskMe would help the…
