Bangalore: In a boost to India’s technology start-up ecosystem, Facebook Inc. has acquired a 18-month-old Bangalore start-up, Little Eye Labs, which builds performance analysis and monitoring tools for mobile Android apps, as the social networking giant seeks technology that will help it grow its mobile business.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but reports suggested that the price was $10-15 million. A Facebook spokesman said the company would not comment on the terms of the deal. “The Little Eye Labs technology will help us to continue improving our Android codebase to make more efficient, higher-performing apps,” Subbu Subrama-nian, Facebook’s engineering manager said.
The deal, Facebook’s first in India, is expected to boost interest in the country’s startups.
The Little Eye team will move to Facebook’s headquarters, the company said on its website.
Little Eye was founded just 18 months ago by Kumar Rangarajan, its CEO, CTO Satyam Kandula, Lakshman Kakkirala — all former IBMers — and Giridhar Murthy, a former Apple employee, and Aditya Kulkarni, a former Googler. The company had released its first Android apps analysis tool only in April 2013.
“With this acquisition, Little Eye Labs will join forces with Facebook to take its mobile development to the next level! This is Facebook’s first acquisition of an Indian company, and we are happy to become part of such an incredible team,” Little Eye said in the statement on its website.
“From there, we’ll be able to leverage Facebook’s world-class infrastructure and help improve performance of their already awesome apps. For us, this is an opportunity to make an impact on the more than one billion people who use Facebook.”
“This acquisition fits in very well with the overall mobile strategy of Facebook and will give it access to a good talent pool from India, along with a technology that could help track and improve the performance of Facebook Apps,” said Zinnov Man-agement Consulting’s Praveen Bhadada.
“While from a Faceb-ook perspective it could be a small step to look at Indian market for acquisitions, it’s a giant step from an Indian start-up ecosystem perspective. The number of start-ups forming every year in India has quadrupled since 2006. This acquisition will boost to the already growing ecosystem,” he added.
