Excl: Hushbabies acquires kids' products e-tailer MangoStreet, looking to launch private label soon

Baby products e-tailer Hushbabies.com, run by Lapis Marketing Pvt Ltd, has acquired MangoStreet.com, an online shop offering kids' products. However, details of the deal had not been disclosed. Hushbabies' target customers include parents and parents-to-be, and it offers products ranging from baby care items to toys and clothes. Post-acquisition, the company may consider expanding the current categories as MangoStreet's target audience is kids in the age group of 4-12 years. Besides Hushbabies, Lapis also runs babyBOX, an information site targeting expecting parents and parents of toddlers.

MangoStreet was set up in 2008 by Mohit Yadav and Rahul Yadav. Prior to starting the venture, Mohit was an AVP at Credit Suisse and worked with Deloitte before that. Rahul was the co-founder of an another company called Scopial Fashions. Both founders have now joined Hushbabies as business leaders and will be directly reporting Sridhar Seshadri, CEO of Hushbabies and babyBOX. "The founding team at MangoStreet has immense expertise in supply chain management and manufacturing, which can be leveraged now for Hushbabies," Seshadri told Techcircle.in.

Hushbabies recently raised Series A funding from IndoUS Venture Partners and Seshadri said that the investor had supported the company financially for the current acquisition. Earlier, Seshadri had told us that Hushbabies had grown 10 times during the first half of 2012 and was doing as many as 1,000 transactions on any given day. Even now, he is sticking to these numbers.

Asked about future plans, Seshadri said that Hushbabies is now looking to enter the private label market and the Yadavs' expertise will come in handy for that. "It's still in the process but we have already started putting the supply chain in place and meeting the right manufacturers. Mohit and Rahul are helping us with that," he added.

However, Seshadri maintained that their focus would still be baby care and infant products.

Asked how Hushbabies would gain from the acquisition since MangoStreet caters to a different segment altogether, he replied, "There is a lot of overlapping as far as our respective product catalogues go. Plus, we would also introduce new categories. MangoStreet.com will be shut down after some time but for now, it will redirect to Hushbabies." But last we checked, the MangoStreet site was not working.

(Edited by Prem Udayabhanu)