Myntra acqui-hires mobile-tech startup Native5

Flipkart owned lifestyle e-commerce venture Myntra Designs Pvt Ltd has acquired mobile-tech startup Native5 Software Solutions Pvt Ltd for an undisclosed amount. The move is seen as part of its push for becoming a mobile-first and possibly a mobile-only venture in the future.

The deal is structured as an acqui-hire where the acquisition is for bringing on board the team of the target rather than an acquisition of the company for its product or service.

Indeed, Native5 has already deactivated its website.

Myntra had inked an acqui-hire agreement with Native5 in January this year and the eight-member team of the Bangalore-based startup joined Myntra in April, Mint reported citing Ravi Gururaj, chair, Nasscom Product Council. Native5 was part of Microsoft Ventures Accelerator Batch 3 in 2013 and was featured in the Nasscom 10,000 Startup programme the same year.

The Bangalore-based startup provides libraries and tools to build, integrate, deploy and manage mobile, tablet and desktop applications for iOS, Android and Windows using HTML, CSS and Javascript.

Native5 offers an open source framework for developers to tailor applications to suit form factors, device capabilities and operating systems. It also helps enterprises monitor applications and data services and get real time analytics customised to their business requirements.

It was founded by Manish Priyadarshi, Barada Sahu, Kunal Abhishek and Shamik Datta in 2011. Talking to Techcircle.in, one of the co-founders said Priyadarshi won't be joining Myntra and wants to continue in the startup ecosystem. He is currently volunteering in Nepal after the mountain state was rocked by an earthquake.

According to an earlier report by The Times of India, that first broke the news, the deal will see three of its co-founders joining the Flipkart technology team.

Sahu graduated from IIT-Kharagpur and worked with Kony, Capgemini and Ocimum Biosolutions before launching Native5.  Datta, an IIT-Mumbai graduate, comes with a breadth of technology experience of embedded systems and cloud infrastructure at DSipher Design Solutions and Freescale. Priyadarshi is an engineering graduate from University of Pittsburgh and has an MBA from Wharton who then worked with Sprint and Artisan Partners. Abhishek, an engineering grad from ISM Dhanbad, went on to grab an MBA from IIM Calcutta and has worked with Kony Solutions, Accenture and Virtusa before joining Native5.

Myntra was acquired by Flipkart last year in what was then the largest M&A deal in the internet space in India. However, the technology teams of the two firms operate independently.