A growth gateway platform for Micro, Medium & Small Enterprises (MSMEs), Instamojo, has announced its first-ever acquihire of Bengaluru-based virtual theatre and vernacular content platform, Showman.
The acquihire will see the on-boarding of the founding member team of Showman. Kshitij Bhatawdekar, Co-founder and CEO of Showman joins Instamojo as Product Manager, while Rutveez Roopam Rout, Co-founder & COO of Showman joins as User Research Manager.
Focused on empowering the Indian MSME sector, the Instamojo platform offers products and solutions which enable small businesses to achieve digital independency. Through the pandemic, the company introduced several products to address the timely need of small businesses, and consequently recorded a 25% growth in merchant base.
Early last year, the company acquired GetMeAShop (GMAS), an ecommerce enablement firm backed by Times Internet, and closed its Pre-Series C round of funding later in 2020.
Instamojo Co-founder and COO Akash Gehani said, “The Acquihire of Showman is a first for Instamojo and comes at a time when we as a company are evolving to move to the next level.”
“This acquihire will help Instamojo strengthen its product and tech prowess as we continue to innovate across multiple categories and achieve our vision of being the most trusted platform for MSMEs to start their business online,” he added.
Founded in 2019, Showman operates a virtual theatre that enables users to buy movie tickets online and watch it from the comfort of their homes. The company recently clocked a compound monthly growth rate of 73.2% and has negotiated $30 million worth of movie contracts across Indian film industries.
Showman Founder Kshitij Bhatawdekar said, “As an entertainment-focused platform, we have deep insights into the users of India. When we spoke to Instamojo, we realised our insights can drive real impact for the MSME space of India.”
Passion Connect, an HR Advisory Unit incubated by Blume Ventures, played a vital role in this acquihire. Led by Sanam Rawal, Passion Connect implements innovative hiring techniques to find the perfect employee-employer fit for their over 110 portfolio startups. The Acquihiring vertical, led by Swati Gupta is one such technique.
