Rays Culinary Delights Pvt. Ltd, the parent company of packaged foods startup Sattviko, has recently acquired fashion stylist curation portal StylSpot in order to strengthen its technology platform.

This makes StylSpot the third acquisition by Sattviko following the deals where it has acquired packaged food maker FYNE Superfood in August 2016 and food delivery startup Call A Meal in November 2015.

Financial details and terms of the deal were not disclosed but one of the four co-founders of StylSpot, Sumeet Chilwal will join Sattviko’s core team following the acquisition.

Founded in 2015 by four IIT (ISM), Dhanbad graduates — Sumeet Chilwal, Gaurav Goyal, Amit Verma and Jalaj Dagar, StylSpot is a platform that brings users completed branded outfit looks for the occasion handpicked by fashion stylists.

While Sattviko, on the other hand, was launched in 2014 as a healthy lifestyle brand. At present, it operates a chain of quick-service restaurants (QSR) in three cities, including Gurgaon and Jaipur, ventured into the online delivery of packaged foods in February 2015.

The e-commerce arm sells a range of products, including traditional snacks such as makhanas, flax seeds, raisins, jaggery, and chana. “Since Sattviko is now into e-commerce, StylSpot’s product discovery platform will help us scale up,” said Prasoon Gupta, the Co-founder of Sattviko.

Last November, Sattviko had raised an undisclosed amount of angel investment from a number of individual investors including Raman Roy, the Founder of Quattro Global Services, Ashish Gupta, former CEO of Evalueserve and Vinnie Mehta, executive director at ACMA.

Other investors who also participated include Yogesh Andlay, founder of Nucleus Software Ltd; Kevin Freitas, the HR leader at Inmobi; N Ravikiran, the former head of product at Wipro; G Ravishankar, an ex-CEO of Jet Airways and former CFO at GE Healthcare; Gaurav Khurana, a Microsoft employee; and Vaibhav Jain, Swastika Company’s founder.

By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media

Bigtree Entertainment Pvt Ltd, which runs ticket booking platform Bookmyshow.com, on Tuesday announced that it has acquired a 75% majority stake in Pune-based DIY event registration and ticketing platform Townscript for an undisclosed amount.

Founded in 2014 by Sachin Sharma, an alumnus of IIT Kanpur and Sanchit Malikto, who graduated from Maharashtra Institute of Technology, Townscript provides ticketing and planning services for workshops, conferences, exhibitions, college festivals, marathons and adventure events.

The company comes as the second acquisition this year by Mumbai-based BigTree following its acquisition of Hyderabad-based MastiTickets last month.

“We definitely expect to see more traction in the space of do it yourself ticketing events. It’s unique and addresses a different set of users who want to set up their own events,” said Ashish Hemrajani, the CEO at BookMyShow. “We discovered the perfect synergy match with Townscript and are excited to be partnering with them in their journey towards excelling in this segment.”

Following this acquisition, Townscript will continue to run and operate as an independent entity while Hemant Madhwani, a business development manager at Bookmyshow will also join Townscript to lead the venture.

With the fresh capital, the events firm which works on a DIY ticketing model and helps organisers set up dedicated registration and ticketing pages within minutes using its website or mobile apps will also scale up Townscript, to build and enhance its product as well as to move across different geographies faster.

“We see this investment as the launch pad for a new round of innovation and fast-tracked progress. The investment will be primarily utilised towards building and improving the product offering to technology solutions that address all pain points of registration-based events right from school annual days, expos and conventions, to free-to-host charity, spirituality and fashion events,” said Townscript’s Co-founder Sharma.

Run and operated by Dyulok Technologies, Townscript allows organisers to set up and manage an event’s registration and ticketing platform within minutes. Specifically, Users can customise event details, send promotional mailers, manage payment collection and refunds, as well as generate a data-driven analysis of the event.

Townscript has launched two event apps, one aimed at customers looking to book events around them, and another for event organisers to help them manage registrations.

While the firm does not charge organisers for free events, it follows a transaction-based revenue model for paid events, where it charges customers 4% of the ticket value in addition to Rs 10 per transaction. At present, the company claims to have organised more than 12,000 events across the country including smaller cities like Ludhiana and Jaipur.

BookMyShow sold over 100 million tickets and expects to double the growth in the coming year while it strongly focuses on regional markets.

By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media.

SportsPlay, a sport-matching app that helps discover sports partners in a wide range of sports has recently announced the acquisition of Jogo to bring forth a singular sporting app to provide a better platform experience than before.

With their services ranged around similar premises, Jogo is considered a competitor as well as a suitable partner to SportsPlay in support of providing local sports fans with a smoother platform to enhance their playing experience.

Details of the transaction were not disclosed but assets acquired by SportsPlay includes Jogo’s smart booking system, league management system, sports facilities management system and its current users base.

Pro-acquisition, these Jogo-related assets and businesses will also be rebranded and merged into SportsPlay as one business entity and SportsPlay will also reach an undisclosed 7-figure valuation.

“We are delighted with this merger as it will boost up our business scaling and acquisition of great experienced talents into the company management,” said SportsPlay’s CEO Jin Tan. “Grassroot sports development is an important part of why we do what we do, and this deal will supercharge our efforts to build a stronger, more robust community of sports enthusiasts and sports industry. It’sti a win-win deal.”

Both startups were founded around the same time back in June 2016 and share the same mission of providing a solid solution for current sports businesses which still faces a lot of offline challenges.

SportsPlay is a mobile app that connects users interested in a variety of sports, working through matching users with other individuals who are on the lookout for players to join in on a match in addition to the function of finding sports venues within nearby vicinity.

The app currently has over 10,000 users signed up with more than 30 facilities partners on board nationwide and received initial funding from TinkBig Venture. In addtion to individual users, SportsPlay also aids sports facilities in addressing off-peak hours where court utilization can prove to be a challenge.

On the other hand, Jogo allowed users to book sports courts through its mobile app and gave court operators the opportunity to manage their sports venue through an easy-to-use dashboard. The platform was involved in several local leagues in Klang Valley and helped to manage them through their league management system.

“Both companies wanted to solve problems in sports but our solutions came from different directions and different angles. We noticed that we needed some extra solutions to grow stronger, bigger and faster. So SportsPlay decided to acquire Jogo to put everything under one roof and come out as a more solid solution,” said Jin.

Since Jogo will be rebranded as SportsPlay, their existing users will be directed to that app instantly. Those already using SportsPlay will see no drastic change but the platform will have more features alongside more new members.

Speaking on the merger, Vimal Kumar, the Co-founder and COO of Jogo said, “Jogo has technological expertise in high end management system, providing online solutions for sports leagues and competitions in the Klang Valley, while SportsPlay boasts an extensive user base and exposure to other sports. Pairing the two will allow both parties realise incredible synergies for the benefit of sports lovers all across Malaysia.”

By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media