E-commerce tech firm Skava acquired by Infosys for $120 million
Apr 27, 2015, 11:10am PDT
“We built out the technology and seeing it succeed is what has kept us going,” said Skava co-founder Arish Ali in the company's San Francisco office. The firm has agreed to be acquired by Infosys for $120 million.
Skava, a San Francisco e-commerce tech provider focused on mobile and in-store platforms for big-box retailers, has agreed to be acquired along with an affiliate by the Indian tech services giant Infosys (NYSE: INFY) for $120 million.
Co-founded in 2002 by CEO Arish Ali and Sudha Varadarajan, Skava never took any outside money. It began as a gaming company, but made a fortuitous pivot in 2008 to help big companies like Staples, Toys R Us and Gap make more money from their websites and other digital outlets, like mobile and in-store kiosks.
Last year the company had 270 employees and boasted of 2013 revenue of $22 million, up from $1.2 million in 2009.
Skava, which also goes by the name Kallidus Inc., found an eager reception for its expertise with mobile technologies, personalization of customer appeals and analytics. Business boomed by more than 300 percent from 2010 to 2012 alone, and the company's staff ballooned by 628 percent over a two year period, with most of the growth in India.
The all-cash deal includes retention bonus and a deferred component, Bangalore-based Infosys said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Infosys is a technology consulting and outsourcing company that operates in more than 50 countries. It employs 176,000 people and $8.7 billion in annual revenue.
Patrick covers technology.
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