Kallidus buy to give Infosys presence in e-commerce services

Infosys has acquired the US-based digital e-commerce services provider Kallidus (d.b.a Skava) for $120 million.

Infosys today said that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Kallidus and its affiliate, a provider of digital experience solutions, including mobile commerce and in-store shopping experiences to large retail clients. This is the IT major’s second acquisition so far this year.

The acquisition is an all-cash deal that includes retention bonus and a deferred component. Skava delivers a cloud-hosted platform for mobile websites, apps, and other digital shopping experiences across mobile, tablet, desktop, in-store, and all emerging channels to large retail clients worldwide.

The platform enables retailers to provide a mobile specific experience to their customers through an agile and flexible environment, enabling personalisation and delivering customer analytics across multiple channels. Skava has around 500 employees.

Early this year, the Bengaluru-based software company acquired Enterprise Resource Planning company Panaya in a deal worth around $200 million.

Infosys has also entered into a definitive agreement for an early-stage investment of $2 million in Airviz, to acquire a minority share. Airviz is a personal air quality monitoring start-up and spinout from Carnegie Mellon University.

This was made out of the $500-million Innovation Fund earmarked for investments in disruptive new technologies, and positions it as a driving force in the fast-growing personal health monitoring market with a big data solution that provides indoor air pollution sensing and visualisation.

Besides, as part of the Infosys Innovation fund, the software company has launched Infosys Incubator to help identify, nurture and grow companies engaged in innovative, new, and disruptive technologies that can help the company's business, and create future growth areas.

“By guiding and mentoring these businesses early, we hope to have the first pick of new innovations that we can bring to market and scale, thus improving the chances of viability and long-term success for the start-ups involved,” said the release.

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