Mahindra acquires BabyOye.com

Mahindra Group that already owns and operates baby products venture Mom & Me, has now acquired online baby products store BabyOye.com for an undisclosed amount. Experts view this as a move to strengthen its positioning in the baby-products segment, largely dominated by the unorganized sector.

Babyoye, set up by Sanjay Nadkarni and his wife Arunima Singhdeo four years ago, has got funding of about Rs 90 crores from Accel Partners, Helion Venture Partners and Tiger Global Management. The company took over rival portal Hoopos in an all-stock deal in April 2013. The portal sells products such as diapers, kids’ apparels, toys and maternity care products.

In August last year, Mahindra brought in Prakash Wakankar from its private equity arm Mahindra Partners to replace K Venkataraman as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company. After launching its retail arm in 2009, Mahindra Retail carried out rapid retail expansion opening over 140 stores but realized that the demand was not as strong as the company expected.