Myntra acqui-hires Cubeit to expand technology team

Flipkart owned lifestyle e-commerce venture Myntra Designs Pvt. Ltd has acquired mobile-based content aggregation platform Cubeit for an undisclosed amount.

The team at Bangalore-based Cubeit has been inducted into Myntra to strengthen and expand its technology team, the company said in a statement.

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

Cubeit, owned and operated by Grid Ant Technologies Pvt. Ltd, is a mobile application that allows users to aggregate content from anywhere as well as organise, view and share the same from a given location. The interactive application provides users access to multiple apps depending on the need and allows the same to be shared with individuals or groups.

The startup was founded in 2014 by a group of IIT Gandhinagar alumni - Sarthak Jain, Nithinkumar Gadiparthi and Prathamesh Juvatkar. It was backed by early investors IIT Gandhinagar and Asha Jadeja (a Silicon Valley investor) before it raised around $3 million in seed funding from Accel Partners and Helion Venture Partners.

Cubeit is Myntra's third technology led acquisition. It had acqui-hired mobile-tech startup Native5 in May 2015 and bought San Francisco-based virtual fitting room technology startup Fitiquette in April, 2013.

Myntra was acquired by Flipkart in 2014. However, the technology teams of the two firms operate independently.

VCCircle had recently reported that Myntra is emerging as the front-runner to acquire rival fashion portal Jabong.

Myntra holds around 35% market share while the parent Flipkart has around 10% share. If Jabong rolls into its fold, Flipkart and its subsidiaries together will hold around 70% of the online apparel sales.

"Jabong was as strong as Myntra till a year ago and still commands around 25% market share in online fashion retailing. Flipkart wants to buy Jabong brand and Jabong management too prefers to align with Flipkart and Myntra," a source close to the development said.

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