Online retailer Takealot.com has acquired 100% of the equity of Superbalist.com, a design and apparel online retailer founded four years ago.
The deal comes just three months after Takealot announced that it had raised more than R1bn from Tiger Global Management, an international investment company, and revealed plans to play a much more aggressive role in South African e-commerce.
“We have agreed on the capital expansion and the money has been raised and we are now funded to grow as we choose,” CEO Kim Reid told TechCentral in an interview in May. Tiger Capital took control of Takealot, then Take2, in 2011.
According to Takealot, the acquisition of Superbalist will help it target “millennials” – young people who reached adulthood around the turn of the century.
“The millennial generation is deemed to be the most powerful and relevant market on the planet and we have managed to acquire a business run by millennials, focused on millennials,” Reid said in a statement on Thursday. “They have a great team and we are going to have fun building the business together.”
Superbalist will continue to operate as an independent brand under its current management team, led by MD Luke Jedeikin.
Reid said in May that Takealot has enjoyed growth in excess of 100%/year and wants to “increase that growth rate”.
“We are on a rather aggressive growth path and we are going to continue with that,” he said. Those growth plans include expanding into the sub-Saharan African region. — © 2014 NewsCentral Media
