India's largest e-commerce firm Flipkart has acquired Bangalore-based AdIQuity Technologies Pvt Ltd, which owns and operates mobile advertising platform AdIQuity, for an undisclosed amount, a company spokesperson said.
We have contacted the firm for more details and will update the report as and when we hear from it.
AdIQuity, which initially started with the now-defunct local search engine Guruji.com back in 2006, enables mobile app developers and publishers to earn revenues by leveraging their mobile inventory. It also helps ad agencies, ad networks and other media buyers acquire global mobile traffic.
The company also has features like Geo Sense, which enables mobile advertisers to select and target location-specific audience. The company tied up with Art Of Click, a Singapore-based mobile ad network, to accelerate growth in the Asia-Pacific region two years ago.
It had raised $7 million from Sequoia Capital in 2006, followed by $8 million from Sandstone Capital in 2007 (when Guruji.com was still functioning).
It could not be immediately ascertained if Flipkart has acquired it in an all-cash deal or in a cash plus stock deal which gives a small stake to Sequoia and Sandstone as part of the deal.
The acquisition, Flipkart's second buyout and third deal where it has bought majority stake in a venture in the last one year, allows Flipkart to add a new layer of business which is not tied only to its core e-commerce business.
Last year it had acquired majority stake in mobile payment solutions firm ngpay. It had also acquired Myntra.
Few years ago Flipkart had acquired Mime360 and electronics etailer LetsBuy.
Flipkart, which is flush with cash having raised over $1.9 billion last year alone, has been looking at inorganic expansion.