To boost e-comm play at bottom, RIL acquires Reverie, EasyGov and Sankhya Sutra Labs

Reliance has been eyeing several budding startups in Indian Internet space to ramp up its upcoming e-commerce play. Demonstrating aggressive appetite for such deals, the group is acquiring three more firms.

Soon after entering into agreements to acquire logistics services platform Grab and software firm C-Square Info Solutions, RIL through its subsidiary Reliance Industrial Investments & Holdings (RIIHL) is acquiring three startups namely - Reveries, EasyGov, and Sankhya Sutra Labs.

According to documents filing at NSE, Reliance will invest up to Rs 190 crore in Reverie to acquire its shares, and further, it will invest up to Rs 77 crore in the  Bengaluru-based startup. The deal is likely to be closed by March 2021, shows the regulatory filing.

Media reports also suggested that RIIHL has entered into an agreement for the acquisition of equity shares of Easygov for up to Rs 18 crore. Moreover, RIIHL will additionally invest Rs. 50 crores in the Noida-based.

The investment will ultimately translate into 76 per cent equity stake in the SaaS-based citizen convenience startup on a fully diluted basis.

Similarly, RIIHL is in the process of acquiring equity shares of Bengaluru-based software simulation services startup SankhyaSutra Labs Private Limited(SSL) for up to Rs 16.02 crore.

The whole investment will be around Rs 200 crore and in lieu RIHL will get around 83 per cent of equity capital in the Bengaluru-based dynamic simulation company on a fully diluted basis.

Entrackr has sent queries to Reverie, EasyGov and SankhyaSutra Lab. We'll update the post as the responses come in.

While Reverie acquisition will enhance the group’s digital initiatives including digital consumer platforms with multilingual capabilities, it will leverage Rajan Anandan-backed EasyGov to further ease the Government to Citizen (G2C) schemes and services.

Sankhya Sutra, on the other hand, will help the Industry giant to achieve direct numerical simulation of fluid dynamics for industrial problems.

The startup covers automobile, aircraft manufacturing, oil and gas, and semiconductor manufacturing under its services that will be beneficial for Reliance' other subsidiaries.

Apart from the aforementioned acquisitions, RIL had acquired 5 per cent stake in blockchain startup Vakt, 73 per cent stake in edtech startup Embibe, and increased its stake in AI startup Netradyne.