Printing solutions company Printo Document Services, which operates Printo, an online marketplace for printing services, has acquired its Delhi-based rival Print Bazaar, in an all-stocks deal announced on Monday. With the acquisition, Print Bazaar will be discontinued.
The deal, which was completed last month, was pegged by an unnamed source at The Economic Times at around ₹8 to ₹10 crores. However, no official financial statements were released, citing confidentiality clauses that were signed between the parties. As a part of the deal, Sanjeev Malhotra, CEO at Alia Group (of which Print Bazaar is a part of), will join the advisory board at Printo.
Printo, which is based in Bengaluru, currently operates 28 stores in four cities across the country- Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, and Chennai. With the acquisition, it will add Print Bazaar’s two stores in the Delhi-NCR region.
This deal marks the second buyout that Printo has completed, after purchasing Lifeblob back in 2010.
Founded in 2005, Printo offers a range of printing services- from business cards to internal signages. The company was backed by Sequoia Capital, which led funding with about ₹16 crore in 2007. However, Manish Sharma, who had founded the company with his wife Lalana Zaveri, bought back their stake five years later. Balu Iyer was named CEO earlier this year, while Sharma moved on as the chairman of the board of directors, where he would lead expansion to other metros.
The competition
Printo and Print Bazaar often competed with the following companies: Printland, ZoomIn, and Canvera.
- Printland received and undisclosed amount of funding from SIDBI in 2015.
- ZoomIn bought US-based Photojojo, and received an investment to the tune of ₹50 crore in 2014.
- Canvera raised ₹20 crore in 2016, which gave Info Edge a majority stake in the company at 57%.
