Indian E-commerce Giant Snapdeal Acquires MartMobi to Strengthen Mobility Platform for Merchant Partners

Snapdeal, one of the biggest e-commerce players in India, has acquired Hyderabad-based mobile technology startup Martmobi for an undisclosed amount on Tuesday. The three year-old Martmobi is known to be a self-service platform which builds mobile apps and sites. This acquisition is set to help strengthen Snapdeal's mobile experience of merchant partners.

Being the second most populated country in Asia, India is also considered as the fastest-growing mobile phone market in the region. With this, it is important for mobile applications and sites to not only have an easy-to-use and purchase feature but a navigable transaction and large inventory as well. This is what Snapdeal attempts to improve with its purchase of the Hyderabad-based Martmobi.

"We are focusing on mobile platform as about 75 percent of orders are coming from mobile-based devices. On the merchant side too, we are witnessing similar trends. The MartMobi team is a great addition as it will help strengthen the platform for sellers," Snapdeal co-founder and COO Rohit Bansal told PTI.

Martmobi allows unified connectivity with the customers' current back-end systems in addition to a real-time analytics engine which is said to enhance conversions and user engagement. The startup company only has a 15 member team with over 150 clients.

The company started to carve its mobile competencies with an investment and acquisition spree. It was noted that just last month, Snapdeal also purchased Freecharge, a company which provides customer rewards in exchange with their usage of the platform in paying credits and bills. Though Freecharge still operates as a separate entity until now, Martmobi is expected to be integrated in Snapdeal's primary operations. There is no confirmed time frame yet but according to Bansal, Snapdeal is expecting for Martmobi's specialization to be assimilated with Snapdeal's platform soon.

MartMobi founder and former chief executive officer Satya Krishna Ganni said in a press release: "Mobile is the way forward and all our efforts will be directed towards creating world class mobile technology at Snapdeal."

Snapdeal was founded by Rohit Bansal and Kunal Bahlin 2010. During its five years on business, it has already bought 10 companies and still plans to bolster resources further. It has also received a total of $1.1 billion in funding so far, including a $627 million round led by SoftBank.