e-commerce
Snapdeal strengthens m-commerce biz with MartMobi acquisition
MUMBAI: E-commerce venture Snapdeal is on an acquisition spree. After acquiring mobile transactions platform FreeCharge, earlier this year, the company has now acquired Hyderabad based mobile e-commerce platform MartMobi.
With this, Snapdeal has augmented its mobile commerce capabilities by bringing onboard the MartMobi team that has created mobile specific platform and solutions for small and medium sized businesses in India and globally.
MartMobi, which was founded by Pramod Nair and Satya Krishna Ganni, has core strengths in mobile technologies and has created instant mobile and tablet presence through mobile sites and native apps for e-commerce stores, small and medium sized businesses.
The company enables seamless connectivity with the customers’ existing backend systems in addition to a real time analytics engine to improve conversions and user engagement.
With its inclusion in the Snapdeal family, the MartMobi team will now focus on creating interfaces that enhance customer and seller experience on its mobile platforms. Realizing that the next wave of e-commerce customers are coming from mobile, Snapdeal is making substantial investments to strengthen this arm of business. The company already gets over 75 per cent of its sales via mobile-based transactions.
Snapdeal was also the first company in the Indian e-commerce space to introduce a mobile application for its sellers. Around 70% of Snapdeal sellers now actively use this application to list products, manage inventory and effortlessly sell on the marketplace.
Snapdeal co-founder Rohit Bansal said, “At Snapdeal, we are always on the lookout for talented people who come with special skill sets that will further enhance our capabilities. Being passionate about creating and building technology that solves real problems is another quality we look for in people. Mobile has been a key focus area for us and we have built technology capabilities to create a great experience for our buyers and sellers on this platform. The MartMobi team has built world-class products for mobile commerce, which will give a fillip to our existing mobile capabilities and we are confident that the team will further boost our mobile capabilities. We welcome them into the Snapdeal family.”
MartMobi founder and former CEO Satya Krishna Ganni added, “We are very excited to become a part of the Snapdeal family. We strongly believe that new age technology innovations will happen here. The company has grown at a phenomenal pace in the last few years. With technology as the backbone, Snapdeal is solving the real challenges – of access faced by consumers and of reach faced by large and small retailers in India. Mobile is the way forward and all our efforts will be directed towards creating world class mobile technology at Snapdeal.”
e-commerce
Instamart and Duolingo launch street spell check campaign for Instaprint
Duo the owl fixes signboard typos across cities to showcase instant printing.
MUMBAI: If spelling mistakes had a sworn enemy, it might just be a bright green owl with a printer. Instamart has teamed up with language learning platform Duolingo for a quirky nationwide campaign that turns everyday spelling errors into a public spectacle while promoting its instant printing service, InstaPrint. The playful activation takes aim at the many misspelled shop boards and public signs scattered across Indian streets. From “saloons” that promise haircuts rather than drinks to menus and posters peppered with punctuation mishaps, the campaign sends Duolingo’s mascot Duo on a mission to restore linguistic order.
Armed with Instamart’s instant printing feature, Duo prints corrected versions of the mistakes on the spot and pastes them over the originals. The result is a series of humorous street interventions that have quickly begun circulating on social media.
Photos and videos of the grammar correcting owl have been widely shared online, with amused users reacting to the unexpected spell check patrol. One user joked, “Ab ayega na maza bhidu,” capturing the internet’s delight at the unusual campaign.
Behind the humour lies a practical message. The activation is designed to showcase the capabilities of Instaprint, Instamart’s printing service that allows users to print documents and posters almost instantly.
The company says the feature is meant for everyday needs such as printing resumes, visa documents or last minute posters without the usual scramble to locate a print shop.
Instamart introduced Instaprint in 2025 across select metropolitan cities including Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi. The service allows users to order printed materials directly through the platform, extending the quick commerce model beyond groceries and household essentials.
By combining Duolingo’s famously persistent owl with India’s street level spelling quirks, the campaign taps into the internet’s long running fascination with grammar mistakes while demonstrating a real world use case for instant printing.
After all, in a world full of typos, sometimes what you really need is a quick printer and a very determined language teacher.
