Voonik acqui-hires three startups to build premium e-commerce platform Vilara

Fashion e-commerce aggregator Voonik Technologies Pvt. Ltd has acqui-hired Zohraa, a marketplace for designers and boutiques, to build its e-commerce platform for premium boutiques and independent designers Vilara. The firm also acqui-hired Styl, a salon and spa booking app, and Picksilk, an online silk store, to strengthen its technology, it said in a statement.

In an acqui-hire, a company is bought out for its talent, rather than its services or products. With the three acqui-hires, Voonik will add 29 employees—12 from Zohraa, nine from Styl and eight from Picksilk.

While Picksilk continues as an independent site for now, Zohraa has been renamed Vilara.

On its app, Styl has stated that it has halted operations with the acquisition by Voonik.

While Voonik's core product offering focuses on women broadly, Vilara will serve as a platform for premium boutiques and independent designers, and will cater not only to fashion but also home categories.

In February, Voonik had acqui-hired Bangalore-based shopping site for men Getsy and in August 2015, it had bought out TrialKart, a mobile platform that provides virtual dressing room experience. It had also taken on board four employees from Klozee, which recently shut operations.

In June 2015, the firm had raised $5 million (Rs 32 crore) in Series A funding from Sequoia Capital and Seedfund.

Since its inception in 2013 by Sujayath Ali and Navaneetha Krishnan, the firm claims to have clocked in an annual gross merchandise volume (GMV) of over $80 million and has over 10 million registered users, with 8 million app downloads so far.

Voonik is available as an online platform as well as an app. It brings together multiple stores on a single platform and allows users to shop in a single checkout.

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