Mahindra & Mahindra acquires baby care products e-tailer BabyOye

By Swadha Mishra

Mahindra Group, a multi-billion conglomerate with presence in several sectors including automobile, IT services, retail, finance and hospitality, has announced to acquire Mumbai-based niche e-tailer for baby care and maternity products and services BabyOye.com. The financials of the transaction remain undisclosed.

Anand Mahindra, Chairman and Managing Director, Mahindra Group, tweeted, "BabyOye is now a part of the Mahindra Group. Welcome BabyOye."

On the other hand, Sanjay Nadkarni, Co-founder, BabyOye, tweeted, "We are all delighted to be a part of the Mahindra family.”

BabyOye was founded by husband-wife duo Sanjay Nadkarni and Arunima Singhdeo in September 2010. The firm earlier raised VC funding of $12 million from existing shareholders Tiger Global, Accel Partners and Helion Venture Partners and reportedly roped in former Bollywood actress Karishma Kapoor as an investor.

Email queries sent to BabyOye for further clarification did not elicit any response immediately.

A Chemical Engineering guy from Manipal Institute of Technology, Nadkarni completed his MBA in Marketing from University of Mumbai in 2000. Prior to launching BabyOye.com, he held several positions with Bharti Airtel, where he was responsible for pricing and commercial management, product management, network planning, consulting and solutions. At BabyOye, he was responsible for understanding consumers, employees, suppliers and investors, while building a sustainable brand that Indian parents relate to.

On the other hand, Singhdeo is passionate about the internet both as a business and as a user. She completed her MBA in International Business in 1999 from Symbiosis institute of Management Studies and later worked as Vice President with Naukri.com for about 9 years. It was when Singhdeo became pregnant, her struggle with finding the right products for her expected baby and making informed decisions encouraged the duo to start BabyOye as an attempt to make life easier for new parents.

Recently, its close competitors like FirstCry.com and Hopscotch secured funding from investors. Mumbai-based Brainbees Solutions Pvt Ltd owned FirstCry recently raised $26 million in its Series D round of funding led by Valiant Capital Partner and other existing investors like IDG Ventures India, Vertex and SAIF Partners also participated in the round. On the other hand, Hopscotch.in had successfully raised $11 million Series B financing round led by Facebook Co-Founder Eduardo Saverin and Velos Partners bringing its total funding to $15 million.