Livspace acquires YoFloor
Personalised home furnishings provider Livspace has acquired YoFloor, a mobile platform that offers a virtual trial room for home designs. Post acquisition, co-founders of YoFloor and its core team will join Livspace. The company mentions that it will use the acquisition to create a 3D visualization tool for designers and homeowners.
Last month, Livspace raised $8 million in a round of funding from existing investors including Helion Venture Partners, Jungle Ventures and Bessemer Ventures. In April, the company also acquired the design community and marketplace for consumers and design professionals, DezignUp, for an undisclosed amount. A month later in May, the company acquired the curated online network of interior designers Dwll.in. This was essentially a talent acquisition, with the co-founders of Dwll and its core team joining Livspace.
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Amazon invests in seven new Fulfilment Centres
Amazon has invested in seven new Fulfillment Centres in Ahmedabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Nagpur, Gurgaon, Pune and Mumbai . With this, Amazon now has 20 centres operations in 10 states in India. The company claims it will use the centres to provide faster delivery of products in the given cities.
Earlier this month, Amazon launched Kindle Unlimited in India, a subscription service which gives readers access to over one million books for a limited period. Last month, Amazon India entered into a partnership with Surpluss.in to sell refurbished smartphones by Samsung and Xiaomi on its platform. In June, the company said it would be extending its business loan programme to small sellers in India and seven other countries later this year.
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Askme rolls out grocery platform in Delhi NCR
Local search listing platform AskMe has formally launched its grocery platform in Delhi NCR. The company mentions that it will expand to 27 cities in the next four to six months. Interestingly, in May, AskMe acquired online grocery marketplace Bestatlowest.com for an undisclosed amount which was expected to be merged into AskMe.
Last month, AskMe said it would invest $20 million in online furniture marketplace MebelKart over the next three quarters in return for majority stake exceeding 75%. The investment would help AskMe and MebelKart to acquire a share in the furniture marketplace category. Earlier this year, AskMe entered the Malaysian market by launching ‘Find It’, which was also expected to be integrated on WeChat. At the time of launch, Find It claimed to list over 3 million businesses in 700 categories covering over 450 cities in Malaysia.
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CL Educate acquires 51% in Accendere
Education services company CL Educate has acquired 51% stake in the educational startup Accendere Knowledge Management Services for an undisclosed amount, reports Techcircle. According to the company, the acquisition will help get 700 universities on its platform.
Accendere provides colleges and universities with a platform to help improve their academic standings in various fields like engineering, medicine, technology, arts and law. Founded by R Shivaraman and Praveen Dwarakanath, the platform offers two major services, Concept Paper and Research Incubator. Founded in 1996 as a provider of MBA test prep courses, CL Educate currently offers test preparation solutions and training, publishing and content, vocational training programs and runs a chain of schools called Indus World Schools.
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GetMeFood acquired by Monocept
Monocept has acquired Hyderabad based GetMeFood, which provides online food ordering services for an undisclosed amount, reports NextBigWhat. Founded in 2012 by Mithun Kalaga and Aravind Thodupunoori, GetMeFood claims to list over 600 restaurants and plans to partner with 1500 more.
Post acquisition, both founders will work on ‘DinerKonnect’, Monocept’s cloud-based software as a service solution. Monocept claims its platform is currently used by many restaurants in Hyderabad. The software provides a customer engagement and rewards organizer tools, created for the restaurant and hospitality industry. Online food ordering will be now added to this platform.
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