Fashion e-tailer Myntra has taken over tech startup Witworks for an undisclosed amount to further strengthen its technology team and product development capabilities.
The Bengaluru-based Witworks is focused on building smart wearable devices and their underlying software. As a part of the acquisition, the Flipkart-owned firm will induct the startup’s team into its Innovation Labs.
“Wearables is currently a Rs 300 crore industry in India and is growing rapidly, with online contributing 60% to the total business. This acquisition will enable us to develop and launch cutting-edge wearable products like smart shoes, connected smart watches and interactive and intelligent clothing with biosensors,” Myntra’s chief technology officer Jeyandran Venugopal said in a statement.
Witworks Consumer Tech was founded by IIT-Kharagpur alumni Somnath Meher, Ankit DP and Chandrashekhar Iyer in 2014. The firm unveiled its flagship wearable device, the Blink Watch in 2016, which operates on their voice-based platform, Marvin OS. It also has a range of audio and fitness wearable devices, under the same brand. Besides, it has a product development and marketing team, with capabilities to produce devices in India as well as in global production houses.
The acquisition will enable it to develop wearable products for its in-house brands as well as leverage the technology to drive innovation and enhance consumer engagement in the future, Myntra said in a statement.
Earlier in 2016, the online fashion mogul has also acquired Jabong in $70 million discount deal to become India’s largest fashion platform. The same year it bought a content aggregation platform, Cubeit. In 2015, it acquired Bengaluru-based mobile application development platform, Native5. In 2013, it also acquired US-based firm Fitiquette.