TVS Motor Company Ltd, two-wheeler and three-wheeler manufacturer, has acquired shared mobility startup Intellicar Telematics Pvt Ltd.
TVS Motor, which is backed by homegrown private equity firm WestBridge Capital, bought Intellicar for Rs 15 crore ($2 million), the company said in a stock market disclosure.
Intellicar provides advanced fleet management solutions through a platform powered by IoT technologies coupled with analytics and data management capabilities. It promotes shared mobility to reduce traffic congestion and emissions.
The acquisition will help to accelerate the ongoing digital initiatives at TVS Motor that are targeted at delivering enhanced customer experience, the statement added.
Intellicar had posted net sales of Rs 16.1 crore during fiscal year 2019-20 as against Rs 14.5 crore a year before.
TVS Motor competes with the likes of Hero MotoCorp Ltd, Bajaj Auto Ltd and the local units of Japan’s Yamaha Motor and Honda Motor.
It is a two- and three-wheeler company under the $8.5 billion TVS Group, and has been an active investor and acquirer of two-wheeler automobile manufacturers and auto-tech firms.
In April, it acquired (https://www.vccircle.com/tvs-motor-buys-britain-s-iconic-motorbike-brand-norton-in-distressed-sale) Britain’s iconic bike brand Norton for 16 million GBP (Rs 150 crore or $20 million) in a distressed sale.
In February, the company made additional investment in New York City-based big data analytics startup Scienaptic Systems Inc .
Apart from Scienaptic, TVS Motor has invested in a few other startups. In May 2019, it invested $3.85 million in machine learning company Tagbox Solutions as part of a Series A funding round. Earlier that year, it invested in Pune-based Altizon Systems Pvt. Ltd, which develops solutions based on the industrial IoT.
In 2018, TVS Motor acquired(https://www.vccircle.com/tvs-motors-ups-stake-in-electric-two-wheeler-startup-ultraviolette) electric bike maker Ultraviolette Automotive Pvt. Ltd and RentOnGo, an online marketplace for renting bikes and appliances.
