Amazon Acquires Bangalore based Retail Tech Startup Perpule


Amazon Acquires Bangalore based Retail Tech Startup Perpule

Global retail giant, Amazon Technologies has acquired retail tech startup Perpulefor INR 107.6 crore. The all-cash deal was struck to reinforce Amazon’s play in the kirana-tech space. Post the deal, Amazon is expected to pay extra remuneration to Perpule’s employees, which may bump up the overall deal value worth to around 150 crore, as per the two sources in the know.

The acquisition is expected to provide Perpule’s investors an exit with 4x-5x returns. The Bangalore based startup has so far raised close to $4.7 million from investors including Prime Endeavor Accomplices, Kalaari Capital, Venture Highway and Taxiforsure’s co-founder, Raghunandan G.

Post the acquisition, a major chunk of Perpule’s staff including co-founders Abhinav Pathak, Saketh BSV and Yogesh Ghaturle are expected to join Amazon.

Founded in 2016, Perpule has developed UltraPoS, a cloud based, mobile POS system that substantially improves the billing and checkout process for stores. The store management solution assists small businesses digitally manage and automate inventory, buy orders from wholesalers, and billings.

Amazon will now leverage UltraPoS in a bid to strengthen its position in the Indian kirana or everyday essentials space.

An Amazon India spokesperson confirming the acquisition. “Perpule has built an innovative cloud-based POS offering that enables offline stores in India to better manage their inventory, checkout processes, and overall customer experience. We are excited to have the Perpule team join us to focus on providing growth opportunities for businesses of all sizes in India while raising the bar of the shopping experience for Indian customers," stated the spokesperson.

Amazon had launched ‘Smart Stores’ in 2020 to help offline retailers digitize their inventory, while permitting them to launch digital store fronts on its application. It has scaled its ‘Local Shops’ programme to 50,000 offline retailers in March and plans to double that by year-end. The acquisition of Perpule will also assist Amazon digitize in-store inventory of offline retailers and list them on the Amazon application.