Times Internet, part of the Times of India group, has acquired men’s fashion site MenXP. The Internet company, part of India’s biggest media group, had recently adopted a strategy of buying or tying up with small internet companies that need capital to fund growth.
Interestingly, Times Internet, which owns the indiatimes.com portal which hosts the online avatars of papers such as the Economic Times and the Times of India, has mostly been a media or content company so far.
Indiatimes also has a shopping section, but is not as well known for shopping as it is for the online editions of the newspapers. After having essentially failed to crack the online market, the group had recently decided to co-opt smaller and more nubile start-ups in order to ‘crack’ the market.
The MenXP acquisition has to be seen in this light.
“This is really exciting for us because not only are we bringing in a strong platform, but we are bringing onboard an awesome, entreprenurial team that has a huge vision for their business. Times Internet is focused on bringing on great entrepreneurs that can take their businesses to the next level with our support,” Satyan Gajwani, CEO, Times Internet, said on the deal.
The site was started by entrepreneur Angad Bhatia and his team 3 years ago. MenXP has worked with brands such as Burberry, LG, Samsung, and more to help them reach the economically rising, urban Indian male looking for a chic, cosmopolitan lifestyle, Times Internet said.
“Our goal is to make this content even better and expose it to a bigger audience. MensXP already has a loyal following, and our goal is to let them keep doing what they’re doing to reach larger audiences,” it said.