Continuing with its aggressive, ongoing acquisition frequency, CarDekho parent GirnarSoft, has now acquired virtual reality startup Volob Technologies. The company aims to use the technology from the acquired startup to augment CarDekho.com’s 3D visualisation capabilities.
CarDekho has been working on virtual reality solutions to enhance user experience for a while now. Just a while ago, we saw the company launch ‘Feel the Car,’ an online tool that gives 360 degree interior/exterior views with sounds of the car and explanations of features with videos. With this new acquisition, CarDekho’s VR tech could reach new heights.
The new deal, apparently, is an all-cash transaction and brings in GirnarSoft’s eighth acquisition in the last two years (its third this year). GirnarSoft had previously acquired Drishya360s, a premier photography and video production firm to develop its virtual reality framework. Other deals include Connecto, Help on Wheels, Zigwheels.com, Gaadi.com and BuyingIQ.
Volob Technologies was founded in 2010 by Tarun Kumar and Shweta Jain with the sole aim of providing high-end 3D visualization in real-time. The company has since provided its services to various firms in the industry, primarily automotive — and hence the strategic importance of this company to GirnarSoft. Its leading clients include Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra, Godrej, Greenply and Somany Ceramics.
Amit Jain, co-founder and CEO, CarDekho.com, said,
Visual experience is an important element in assessing a car or bike. Volob has proven expertise in the virtual content. CarDekho.com’s acquisition of Volob is aimed at amplifying the visual experience of car buyers in both real and virtual settings. GirnarSoft has enriched its value proposition for online buyers, dealers and OEMs.
Tarun Kumar of Volob Technologies said,
Volob blends creativity and engineering to create 3D visualization in real-time. Joining CarDekho.com will help us provide solutions which can enable automotive industry deliver life-like experiences to car buyers across multiple touchpoints.
For GirnarSoft, this will be yet another acquisition in a matter of week, with the company earlier announcing the buy out of Connecto, a startup which has been brought in to work on the user experience across all of company’s platforms.
Girnarsoft’s strategy is pretty much plain and simple – the company is hand-picking smaller startups with a highly talented pool of founders to integrate fresh tech innovation into its platform. The acquisition costs are obviously low and the strategy helps to build better platforms and user experiences at an aggressive pace — something which an in-house team would have done from scratch and hence had taken time.
All of GirnarSoft’s auto portals together draw almost 33 million visits per month with 22 million unique visitors per month.The company is hoping to increase these numbers by adding value added services like virtual and augmented reality experiences.
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