Amazon Technologies Inc,  has acquired retail tech startup Perpule in an all cash-deal of 107.6 crore to reinforce its play in the kirana-tech space, as per the regulatory filings.

Amazon is expected to pay extra remuneration to Bengaluru-based Perpule’s employees, which may bump up the overall deal value worth to around 150 crore, as per the two individuals.

With this, the firm plans to up its game in the kirana-tech space as it would now leverage Perpule’s cloud-based point-of-sale (PoS) offering ‘UltraPoS’ and offer another  new suite of technology products to kirana partners, while digitizing neighbourhood stores.

The acquisition is expected to provide Perpule’s investors an exit with 4x-5x returns. The four-year old startup has raised close to $4.7 million till date from Prime Endeavor Accomplices, Kalaari Capital, Venture Highway and Taxiforsure co-founder Raghunandan G.

Most of its staff including co-founders Abhinav Pathak, Saketh BSV and Yogesh Ghaturle are expected to join Amazon, said one of the said one individual mentioned above.

UltraPoS, which is Perpule’s primary product is a full-fledged store management solution that assists small businesses digitally manage and automate inventory, buy orders from wholesalers, and billings.

An Amazon India spokesperson confirming the acquisition, said Perpule’s cloud POS will help offline stores of all sizes manage their operations better.
“Perpule has built an innovative cloud-based POS offering that enables offline stores in India to better manage their inventory, checkout processes, and overall customer experience. We are excited to have the Perpule team join us to focus on providing growth opportunities for businesses of all sizes in India while raising the bar of the shopping experience for Indian customers," stated the spokesperson.

A year ago, Amazon launched ‘Smart Stores’ to help offline retailers digitize their inventory, while permitting them to launch digital store fronts on its application.

It has scaled its ‘Local Shops’ programme to 50,000 offline retailers in March and plans to double that by year-end. The acquisition of Perpule may also assist Amazon digitize in-store inventory of offline retailers and list them on the Amazon application.

Perpule’s UltraPoS, which had near 10,000 store and retail accomplices across India, South-east Asia and the UAE as of last year, also provides core analytics for retailers to assist them understand customer demographics and purchase patterns at outlets. Nearly 60% of the product’s customer base are international clients including Matahari Retail in Indonesia and Landmark Group in Malaysia.