Myntra acquires IoT-enabled smart wearable startup Witworks

Online fashion store Myntra has acquired consumer technology platform Witworks- a Bengaluru-based smart wearables maker for an undisclosed amount.

Following the deal, the Flipkart-owned fashion marketplace will take over Witwork's team to strengthen its technology team and product development capabilities. Myntra will use the wearable products for its in-house brands as well as leverage technology to drive innovation and improve consumer engagement in the future.

After raising a seed round in 2016 from Fireside Ventures, Investopad, and Manish Singhal, Witwork was trying to raise follow-on capital. However, it failed to onboard institutional investors for Series A round.

Witworks was launched in 2014 by Somnath Meher, Ankit DP, and Chandrashekhar Iyer. The company had launched its flagship wearable device Blink Watch in 2016, that operates on its voice-based platform Marvin OS.

The startup also has an assortment of audio and fitness wearable devices, under the same brand. Besides, it has a dedicated product development and marketing team, with capabilities to produce devices in India as well as in global production houses.

According to Jeyandran Venugopal, CTO, Myntra, this acquisition will enable the company to develop and launch cutting-edge wearable products like smart shoes, connected smart watches and interactive/intelligent clothing with biosensors.

The IoT and smart wearable space has already been dominated by major players like Apple, Samsung, Fitbit, Xiaomi, and Titan. Other key players in the segment include Leaf Wearables, MyZone, and GoQii, among others.

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Currently, Myntra claims to generate gross merchandise value (GMV) of $1.2 billion in the last financial year. Its Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization) margin narrowed to 5 per cent in the month of March from 17 per cent in the year earlier.

Apart from expanding its core fashion business, Myntra is also trying to increase sales in personal care, jewellery, and home accessories. The company had reported an 87 per cent jump in turnover in FY17 as compared to previous one. It had a total turnover of Rs 2,000 crore in the last fiscal.

Besides Witworks, the company had acquired companies including Bengaluru-based mobile app development platform company Native5, content aggregation platform Cubeit, and in July 2016 it acquired one of its close rival Jabong to become India’s largest fashion platform.

The development was reported by ET.