Knowlarity acquires Smartwards, will provide enterprise solutions to SMEs

Sequoia Capital and Mayfield backed Knowlarity Communications, a cloud communication company that provides communication tools including, IVR, fax and conferencing facilities for SMEs, enterprise customers and individuals has acquired Smartwards, a customer engagement platform that simplifies loyalty for local businesses and their customers for an undisclosed amount. Smartwards is a customer engagement platform which enables offline retailers to identify, track and engage their existing customers and walk-ins.

Smartwards is made available through an application to customers and its services include loyalty marketing, feedback systems, customer engagement, social and direct marketing. The client engagement platform started its operations about three years back with its proprietary technology enabling SMBs to identify, reward, engage customers, in-store and out-of-store. The company claims to have its presence in over 150 locations across eight cities, Smartwards provided engagement solutions to local businesses, including restaurants, cafes, cinemas, salons and retail outlets.

As part of the acquisition, Shantanu Mathur and Dhanraj Singh Bisht the Co-Founders of Smartwards, will lead the India operations for Knowlarity. The deal will see Knowlarity integrating the Smartwards product and technology into its own product ecosystem to provide enterprise software solutions to small and medium businesses. Knowlarity was founded in 2009 to solve the pain points of managing calls and SMS for companies, without getting into the hassles of a full-fledged call center or having to be bound to one phone.

Ambarish Gupta, CEO and Founder, Knowlarity says, “We are thrilled to welcome Shantanu, Dhanraj and their team on board at Knowlarity. We look forward to working with the Smartwards team and utilize its expertise. Shantanu and Dhanraj are solid entrepreneurs who are early movers in the space and do not shy away from tackling complicated problems. We look forward to them driving the core communication business in India and utilize their experience in developing more analytical tools.”

Gupta further comments that the company will continue to use acquisitions as a natural extension of its strategy to further build capabilities and acquire top talent.

Shantanu Mathur, who has been appointed as the Country Head, says, “The Smartwards team is very excited and is looking forward to being a part of the Knowlarity family. We share the larger vision of tackling this unique opportunity, not only in India but world over. Our journey in building a strong B2B2C product has been quite fascinating. We realized early, that to make a successful product for the Indian customer, one has to solve the problem in-depth and at-scale. However, the SME is not an easy market to crack in India and thus we were looking to move to a larger platform. With Knowlarity, we get the freedom and agility of a start up in a well-established organization.”