California Based Marketing Company vMobo Acquires Fintech Startup Binge

Bengaluru-based fintech startup Binge has been reportedly acquired by California-based marketing firm vMobo at the former’s valuation of $3.5 Mn.

As per the deals of the transaction, vMobo will own Binge’s technology, partnerships, and team.

Binge was founded by Ajay Joseph, Santosh Martin, Christopher Lopez, and Shankar Sukurutraj. It is an app-based platform that enables users to pay their restaurant bills via the same. The startup provides an F&B payments solution that brings the user’s offline bill online, making it possible to pay them via mobile wallets, thus facilitating cashless payments.

Commenting on the development, Santosh Martin, co-founder, Binge said, “ Binge, earlier owned by Noroc Solutions, will not exist as a brand, and its 25,000 users will have to download the VClusive app, which also has the integrated wallet with the same wallet partners from Binge such as Paytm and MobiKwik.”

Binge was also amongst the top 10 startups of the Reliance & Microsoft accelerator’s GenNext Innovation hub’s fall 2015 batch.

Founded in 2008, vMobo is an interactive direct marketing company. vMobo’s flagship product Vcloud is a multi-brand rewards and privilege programme that allows merchants to acquire, retain, and engage customers by leveraging standard programme features such as cross-merchant promotions, as well as their own custom campaigns.

Talking about the acquisition, Vinu Sundaresan, CEO, vMobo said, “There was no luxury marketplace that was targetting high earning individuals who purchase affordable and accessible luxury items. Our target customers include those who have a disposable income of INR 10 Lakh or more in a year. This integration helps us solve the problem of the customer-facing, point-of-sale experience by providing a last-mile payment option.”

In another development, vMobo has also merged itself with a Mumbai-based fashion styling startup Dapper Don. The joint entity will be a marketplace of more than 120 brands, called VClusive, as per the official statement.

VClusive will have brands ranging across lifestyle and fashion products, including services in the beauty, wellness, food, and beverages sector.

Earlier last week, fintech startup Ziploan secured an undisclosed amount in funding from GrowX Ventures. Prior to that, fintech startup for daily wagers Inmotion received funding from 1mg’s founders Prashant Tandon and Gaurav Agarwal.

This development was reported by ET.