Online baby and kids’ portal Babyoye.com has merged with its competitor Hoopos.com to become a larger entity and gain better market share.
Mumbai-based Babyoye also operates another portal called Kidsoye.com, which deals with products related to kids in the age group of 6-14 years. While Babyoye is backed by private equity players such as Accel Partners and Tiger Global, Hoopos has investments from Helion Ventures.
Vijay Jumani, Founder of Hoopos.com, said that all the three private equity players have infused about $12 million in the merged entity.
“The entire online market for kids boomed within the last 3-4 years. And most companies operating in this segment are growing fast and doing reasonably well,” said Jumani. The company, which started in 2011, has already been able to get about 4,000 orders per day with an average ticket size of Rs 1,200.
He also said about 40 per cent of the orders came from non-metros and about 50 per cent of its customers were repeat. It is growing at over 50 per cent CAGR annually.
Jumani further said that though the company has been able to increase sales, it has not turned profitable yet. However, Babyoye.com, set up in May 2010, is already profitable, according to industry experts, who wished not to be quoted.
Even as the baby market is India is poised to grow, the online segment is witnessing some kind of consolidation already with similar deals reported in the last few months.
Last year baby care products e-tailer Hushbabies.com has acquired MangoStreet.com, another online store for kids, for an undisclosed amount.
According to Sunil K Goyal, CEO and Fund Manager at Venture Capital fund YourNest Angel said that the young India will continue spending even as the disposable income increases. He said that parents in top 16 cities of India alone are spending about Rs 15,000 crore outside of the school. The online baby care segment is also witnessing a lot of investor interest. There are about 15 online portals such as firstcry.com, toygully.com, allschoolstuff.com, storyrevolution, hushbabies and mycity4kids.com that deal with kids by providing products and services.
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