Yahoo Acquires First Indian Startup, Bookpad

Close on the heels of reaping benefits from the Alibaba IPO, tech giant Yahoo has bought Bangalore-based year-old startup Bookpad. The amount of the deal has not been disclosed. However, the Times of India reports that it is just under $15M.

The development comes just a few months after Facebook bought another Bangalore startup, Little Eye Labs. Indian startups are increasingly present on the world map and Bangalore is living up to its title of the country’s Silicon Valley.

Bookpad was founded by three young innovators and graduates of the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati. Founders Aditya Bandi, Niketh Sabbineni, and Ashwik Battu are all in their early 20s.

Its flagship product Docspad allows document embedding and annotation to a user’s app. It supports all popular document formats — PDF, Word, Excel — and works across devices. According to the company website, it is useful for cloud storage services, collaboration apps, e-learning platforms, productivity software, etc.

The company was incubated at NASSCOM 10,000 Start-ups and the government of Karnataka’s Startup Warehouse. Later on, it also participated in Microsoft’s Accelerator Program.

But Bookpad’s big break came when it participated in NASSCOM’s Innotrek, a trip to Silicon Valley earlier this year that was designed to help Indian startups meet US technology giants and familiarize them with the startup environment there. During the visit, they met M&A consultant Rob Schram, who later helped broker the deal between Yahoo and Bookpad, said the Times of India report.

e27 has reached out to Bookpad to further understand the deal.

Disclosure: None

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