Goodbox strengthens e-commerce business with SmartPocket acquisition

BENGALURU: Bengaluru-based conversational m-commerce start-up Goodbox has acquired SmartPocket for an undisclosed amount.

SmartPocket started out as a mobile app that allowed customers to digitize their loyalty cards. They were working towards making SmartPocket the online wallet for customers to make online payments, place orders with offline partners as well as store all their virtual cards in one place. SmartPocket was co-founded by Kiran Shastri and Mayank Shah. They will be joining the leadership team at Goodbox post acquisition.

Goodbox enables small businesses to become e-commerce ready, on the Goodbox app, within minutes by providing discovery, ordering and payment. Consumers can buy directly, over messaging, from their trusted stores across multiple categories without having to download multiple apps. Goodbox had recently announced its Series A funding of $2.5 million from marquee investor Nexus Venture Partners.

Commenting on the acquisition, Abey Zachariah, CEO and Co-founder of Goodbox said, “The SmartPocket team is very talented and tenacious. During our discussions with them, we realized we share a similar vision and it made sense to join forces to empower millions of SMEs to come online. We are building very strong mobile capabilities and this is a step towards that objective. We are very excited to be building Goodbox along with them.”

Kiran Shastri, CEO & Co-founder of SmartPocket said, “We are excited about joining the team at Goodbox. We have a shared vision and now a shared goal. At SmartPocket, we wanted to create a marketplace with a focus on repeat business and customer loyalty through a digital wallet. We will now look to bring that mindset, technology and expertise with us into Goodbox. There is a clear need among businesses for a platform that enables them to sell on mobile and Goodbox is catering to that need -while it creates one of the largest consumer platforms that enable them to buy directly from their trusted businesses on a single app.”