M&A roundup - week ending 5/14/16

Indiegogo acquired Celery; Salesforce bought Implisit; Upserve purchased Breadcrumb from Groupon

Crowdfunding platform Indiegogo acquired Celery,  a provider of tools for crowdfunders. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

Celery will remain a standalone business. As part of the transaction, creators on Celery will be able to grow their community and reach new audiences with Indiegogo InDemand, a community marketplace of 15 million early adopters and product enthusiasts.

Founded in 2012, Celery had raised $2.3 million in venture funding from Elementum Ventures, Max Levchin, SV Angel and Y Combinator.

Upserve, a smart management assistant for restaurateurs, acquired point-of-sale business Breadcrumb from Groupon. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed, but Groupon is exchanging all Breadcrumb assets for an undisclosed, minority stake in Upserve.

Employees from Breadcrumb will join Upserve's team in San Francisco, Chicago, Providence and New York.

Breadcrumb, founded by Seth Harris in 2011, was acquired by Groupon in 2012. It is now serving more than 6,000 restaurants in every U.S. state.

Bango, a provider of app store carrier billing, acquired carrier billing service BilltoMobile from Danal. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

The acquisition positions Bango as the leader in carrier billing in the U.S. market and consolidates its position as the world’s leading provider of carrier billing for app stores. As a result of the acquisition, Bango is now the only processor of carrier billing transactions across all four major U.S. mobile network operators,  representing more than 300 million connected devices and handling US $80 million of transactions in 2015.

The acquisition enables MNOs and other Bango partners, including Google, Microsoft and others, to use Bango technology for carrier billing in the U.S, achieving greater scale and higher revenues from carrier-billed payments in this high-value market. 

Quikr, an Indian cross category classifieds business, acquired Salosa, an on demand in-home beauty services provider. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

This strategic acquisition is a part of Quikr’s plan to invest Rs.250 crore in its home services vertical, QuikrServices.

Salosa which has been a partner to QuikrServices will further strengthen its beauty services offerings with stylists that have undergone a rigorous process of quality & background checks along with required training.

Salosa was launched in September 2015.

Truck aggregation platform Moovo acquired transporation service GoGoods. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

The five-member GoGoods team will join Moovo.

With the acquisition, Moovo, which has operations in Delhi-NCR, Kanpur, Kolkata and Bhubaneswar, has expanded its network to Bihar and Jharkhand, Anjani Kumar.

Lynx Technology, a provider digital video, photo and music products or services to consumers, acquired the North American and European Connected Home business operations of PacketVideo, which produces software for wireless multimedia. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

Packetvideo was  subsidiary of NTT DOCOMO. The acquisition includes the grant of an irrevocable, non-exclusive license of PV’s market leading media technology, Twonky, from PV to Lynx Technology.

Lynx Technology will continue to develop the Twonky software platform for its customers around the world, including North America, Europe and Asia.

Lauched in 1998, Packetvideo had raised $205.5 million in venture funding. 

Triton, a private equity investment firm, signed an agreement to acquire Voith Industrial Services, a provider of value-add technical services for the industrial sector, from Voith GmbH. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

Voith GmbH will continue to hold 20 percent of the company. Voith Industrial Services has a workforce of about 17,200 employees at more than 200 locations

The transaction is subject to regulatory approval in the relevant jurisdictions.

CannaSys, a marketing, branding and technology company focused on the regulated cannabis industry, signed a letter of intent to acquire CitizenToke, a deals communication platform for the cannabis industry, from BetaKillers. Financial terms were not disclosed. 

BetaKillers, in partnership with CannaSys, is readying CitizenToke’s launch into the market in partnership with several launch partners. As part of the transaction, BetaKillers’ core team will work with CannaSys to launch and bring to market the CitizenToke product, including providing timely enhancements and ongoing marketing support. 

CitizenToke, initially a mobile web based platform, will communicate deals and distribute coupons to cannabis consumers and patients through a unique text message based system.  The system is designed not only to enhance consumer’s retail experience but also provide incentive for consumers to download and redeem coupons in a timely manner. 

Overdog, a social matchmaking platform, acquired Odd Networks, a SaaS platform for developing Over The Top video broadcast networks. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

Overdog’s technology will be incorporated into Odd’s product, and the Overdog management team will remain as advisors to Odd.

The Odd and Overdog teams have worked together for years, and are dedicated to delivering best-in-class experiences in gaming and Over-The-Top content, and are excited to be working together officially. 

Founded in 2015, Odd Networks had raised $250,000 in venture funding from Brian Corrigan. 

FreeWheel, a Comcast Platform Services company and provider of premium video ad management solutions, acquired StickyADS.tv, a video supply-side platform. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

The acquisition will create an end-to-end solution enabling clients to manage video inventory across all screens and access demand from any demand channel, while ensuring a brand-safe, TV compliant experience.

Founded in 2009, StickyADS.tv had raised $6.11 million in venture funding. The company serves more than 7,000 websites in 150 countries worldwide.

Salesforce acquired data-automation startup Implisit. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed, though it is said to worth tens of millions of dollars. 

Implisit helps customers analyze data among sales teams. 

Founded in 2013 the company, which is based in Israel, had aised $3.3 million in ventire funding from Gemini Israel Ventures

KlearSky Solutions, a provider of website design and development, data management services, and technology integration, merged with Tessitura Network, a provider of CRM software to the arts, cultural and entertainment organization market. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

KlearSky's 15 member team will join Tessiture. Ivan Medanic, President and founder of KlearSky, has taken the role of Senior Vice President, Consulting, of the Tessitura Network.

The Tessitura Network has grown to 545 organizations who hold licenses, become Network community members, and take advantage of Tessitura's powerful unified customer relationship system.

KlearSky, founded in 2004, focused its services to four main offerings: digital design and branding, website development, database management service and custom technology integration. They served Tessitura clients in a number of states with retained services, web services, custom coding, and they performed as a subcontractor for the Tessitura Network. 

TrackMaven, a  marketing analytics platform, acquired 10Stories, a multi-channel marketing attribution software. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

The acquisition was announced at Spark 2016, TrackMaven's annual digital marketing conference in Washington, D.C. TrackMaven CEO Allen Gannett also announced a new joint product, TrackMaven Attribution, which allows customers to track the impact of their marketing throughout the entire sales funnel.

With the acquisition, 10Stories co-founders T.R. Jordan and Benjamin Lu will join the TrackMaven team full-time. Jordan and Lu will open a new TrackMaven office in San Francisco, California, and help to expand the company's product and engineering teams. Jordan's pet Corgi, Bitters, will also join the team alongside TrackMaven's mascot, Maven the Corgi.

Axactor, a provider of credit management services, acquired Geslico, supplier of services within debt collection. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

With this acquisition, the company obtains access to a modern and industry leading IT systems required for its existing operations enabling time and cost savings. In addition, Axactor also increases its market share within the Spanish debt collection and debt purchase market. With the addition of Geslico, Axactor will be positioned as one of the largest players in the Spanish non-performing-loans market.

Geslico was founded in 1985. It has 300 employees and offices in Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla, Alicante, Valencia, Córdoba, Zaragoza and Bilbao. In 2015, the company delivered revenues of EUR 13.6 million, EBITDA of EUR minus 4.6 million and adjusted EBITDA of EUR 0.9 million.

ShopWings, an online platform that provides its users with the ability to receive groceries and delivery services, merged with Grocery Butler, an Australian grocery delivery service. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

The two companies agreed to a merger of equals, combining their operations into one single entity as of early May 2016. Operating under the brand of ShopWings based in Sydney, the combined business will further accelerate the shift from offline to online grocery shopping, operating in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.

The management team will be led by Guillaume Ang, current COO of ShopWings, who will become the CEO of the joined entity, and current CEO of Grocery Butler, Michael Parthenides, who will lead Melbourne Operations. Manutea Dupont, the current Managing Director for ShopWings will remain on the entity’s board of director along with Michael Parthenides.

Founded in 2014 ShopWings had raised $13.64 million in venture funding. Grocery Butler, which was also founded in 2014, had raised $197,920 in funding.

Auctionata, an online auction plattform for art and luxury collectibles, merged with online auction house Paddle8. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

All co-founders woll remaining in strategic and operational roles integral to the company's future growth. Alexander Zacke, previously CEO of Auctionata, will lead the global management team of the newly formed group. Both the Paddle8 and Auctionata brand names will continue on as the two companies fuse together.

The two companies have joint sales above $150 million and nearly 800,000 registered users.

Founded in 2012, Auctionata has raised $88 million in equity capital with notable investors including Earlybird, Kite Ventures, MCI Management, Hearst Ventures and Groupe Arnault. Paddle8, which was founded in 2011.  has raised a total of $44 million with investors that include Founder Collective, Mousse Partners and Skate Capital, as well as David Zwirner, Damien Hirst and Jay Jopling.

LoveToKnow, an online media company that owns and operates a family of web sites dedicated to providing information to Internet users, acquired outdoors resource site Trails.com. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed.

The company plan on developing the site further with more maps and guides as well as new great interactive features for its subscribers.

Trails.com, which was founded in 1999, provides downloadable trail guides, maps and other information for outdoors adventurers. Members can also access topographic maps, directories of campgrounds, hotel and dining guides, and travel tips.

Welocalize, a translation and localization solution, acquired Nova Language Services, which provides specialized translation and localization services to multinational businesses. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

 Nova's headquartered in Barcelona, Spain, and is strategically important to Welocalize's growing portfolio of regulated industry language solutions for life sciences, including biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical device companies, and contract research organizations.

Founded in 1998, Nova has 19 global offices and provide language solutions in 175 languages.

Good Company Wines, parent company of online wine retailer, invino, acquired wine club company Glassful. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

Developed to deliver a fully customized wine-buying experience, Glassful has been highly successful at delivering on its three core tenets: discovery, QPR and transparency, all backed by powerful trailblazing technology.

Founded in 2014, Glassful had raised $1.75 million in venture funding from JB Osborne, Matias Corea and Pixafy.

Synechron, a global consulting company for financial services industry, acquired Hatstand, a global financial services consultancy and capital markets specialist. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed. 

This acquisition further builds Synechron’s consulting capabilities for world-leading financial institutions in key areas such as cybersecurity, market data and risk and regulatory compliance.

Hatstand’s capabilities will deepenSynechron’s existing consultancy services while adding data management expertise.

(Image source: lifehacker.com)