Promoters of exhibition organiser ABEC acquire artists' marketplace PosterGully
Delhi-based marketplace PosterGully, which was founded by Bharat Sethi in 2012, has been acquired by Sumit Gandhi and Manish Gandhi, promoters of Asian Business Exhibitions and Conferences (ABEC) in their individual capacity. The amount has not been disclosed.
Post-acquisition, Bharat Sethi will join the advisory board and will take charge as Executive Director and CEO of iDecorama, a technology-enabled platform engineered to take the building, designing and remodelling industry online, which is also backed by the Gandhi brothers.
A curated marketplace for artists and designers, PosterGully allows users to seamlessly contribute and merchandise designs in a variety of product categories, like home decor, furnishings, apparel and technology accessories to consumers globally.
The company claims that it currently has over 5,000 artists selling on the platform with over 1.5 million unique visitors in 2016. Over the last two years, it claims to have shipped out over 600,000 SKUs. Bharat Sethi said,
We’ve gone on to create a fundamentally sound business and this is a perfect match that has use for all the skills the core team of PosterGully has garnered over the years, especially around growing online communities and blending content with commerce. The buyers have a compelling vision for the future and I’m confident that PosterGully’s customers, community and partners will benefit from these exciting new developments. We’re going to have a bigger team with bigger resources solving bigger problems.”
Last year, PosterGully had raised $160,000 in an angel round from a group of angel investors through LetsVenture. The round was led by Natarajan Iyer, former Consultant at Egon Zehnder and was participated in by Rajesh Sawhney, Nish Bhutani, Vivek Mulchandani, Virtu Propdeal, Vikram Saxena, Mineral Enterprises Limited, Bhavika Enclave and Anuj Chowdhary.
Accelerated at The Hatch and GSF, PosterGully was also backed by industry veterans like Murugavel J, Dinesh Agarwal, Anupam Mittal, Roshan Abbas and Vijay Shekhar Sharma.
ABEC claims to have a 10-12 percent market share in the exhibition organiser segment in India. In 2010, Qatar's investment bank QInvest had acquired a minority stake in ABEC, which was followed by an exit in favour of ITE Group, which enhanced their stake to a majority in 2015.
In this segment, PosterGully had been competing with well-funded firms like Cupick, Chumbak and TouchTalent. While Cupick had raised more than $120,000 in an angel round, Chumbak and TouchTalent had secured investments from Matrix Partners India and SAIF Partners respectively.
