Innoviti Acquires Hyperlocal Digital Marketing Startup xGrow

FinTech startup Innoviti Payment Solutions has announced the acquisition of Digital Marketing Services startup xGrow. The latter specializes in integration of Google and FB tools to provide hyperlocal digital marketing services to SMBs. The acquisition will help offline SMBs grow sales by using digital advertising channels in unique ways.

Currently, the design of all existing digital marketing tools helps online businesses. But, when it comes to offline SMBs there aren't many platforms that connect online ads and brings customers to offline stores. They also can't engage these customers post purchase. Innoviti, on the other hand, has designed a hyperlocal digital marketing platform G.E.N.I.E. It uses low code technology of Sales Force Automation (SFA) to integrate targeted advertising tools of Google and Facebook for hyperlocal targeting of customers for 1 million SMBs in India.

Thus, it helps SMBs to advertise and run offers for their catchment customers. It also tracks the consumer journey from advertisement to sale closure through a unique coupon technology. The company, in a forward-moving statement, announced that its Machine Learning algorithms will continuously optimize the targeting based on actual customer purchase, rather than just intent, improving ROI multi-fold for SMBs. SMBs will be able to grow faster and easier at a fraction of the cost they incur today, it added.

About the acquisition

Innoviti uses payment technology to help businesses extract better value from transactions. It brings banks, brands, and merchants onto a common platform. Thus, it helps each business access 3X more consumers at 1/3rd the cost, accelerating sales with unmatched efficiencies. The acquisition of xGrow is a first for Innoviti. It comes at a time when the company is on a superfast growth path. In fact, in FY 2020-21, its GTV has crossed $10 Bn with net ARR doubling to $18 Mn.

“xGrow acquisition is in line with Innoviti's core philosophy of turning each payment transaction into customer acquisition opportunity and enable SMBs to advertise and acquire customers at the lowest cost and also extract higher value from each transaction. Through xGrow acquisition, we will integrate Digital consumer acquisition tools into Innoviti's payments platform. This will help solve Digital customer acquisition - one of the critical problems for SMBs; thereby augment digital marketing services for them,” said Ankur Shukla, Senior Vice President - Product Marketing, Innoviti.

The company has plans to onboard 100,000 local mobile dealers in the next three months. It thus aims to capture more than 50% market share of this space which is struggling with the lack of quality sales growth tools. It is also launching short-term BNPL products in the Fashion and Food category. The products will help consumers tide over the current economic challenges faced due to the pandemic.

Recently, Innoviti had raised a Series C in 2020 to further its differentiated strategy of servicing the retail market through category and segment specific products.