Rocket Internet buys Talabat for $170 million, also acquires Pizzabo
German tech startup incubator Rocket Internet wants to create a global online food delivery empire. To do so, it has bought Talabat, a Kuwait-based startup that has partnered with fast food franchises around the Middle East to deliver food. Rocket has also acquired stakes in Berlin startups Delivery Hero and HelloFresh, Spanish startup La Nevera Roja, and Italian startup PizzaBo.
After joining Yelp as a transaction partner two years ago, Eat24 has now been acquired by the review platform. Yelp stated that the acquisition of Eat24 will allow the company to build a more seamless ordering experience for consumers.
Ant Financial acquires a 25% stake in One 97 for $575 million
Ant Financial, an affiliate of Alibaba, has acquired a stake in Indian company One97, the parent company of Paytm. Paytm, a third party payment service, was built specifically for Indian shoppers and claims to be processing 5 million payments a month.
Alibaba buys stake in Meizu for $590 million
Alibaba has acquired an undisclosed stake in smartphone company Meizu, which Alibaba has said will allow for collaboration at both strategic and business levels in areas like ecommerce, mobile internet, and mobile operating systems.
Hem acquires assets from Discipline.eu
Berlin home design company Hem has acquired the assets of the Italian design portal Discipline.eu, meaning the design rights and inventory. TechCrunch reports that no employees look to be moving with the acquisition and that Discipline is now “restructuring” its business.
Line Corp, owner of the call and messaging app Line, has acquired payment service WebPay in an undisclosed deal to boost its Line Pay feature, which it plans to use for various ecommerce sites and portals.
Twitter has acquired Niche, a provider of software, community and monetisation services for creative communities - it helps advertisers and marketers work with people on platforms like Vine. Twitter stated that the acquisition will help it better serve content creators.
Perion Network buys MakeMeReach for $20 million
Israeli company Perion has bought French startup MakeMeReach, which allows app developers to incorporate ad campaigns on social media platforms. The acquisition comes just days after US company Marin Software bought another French social media marketing startup, Social Moov.