Shopgate acquires e-commerce developer MagCorp
Mobile commerce platform Shopgate has made its entrance in the world of business mergers and acquisitions by purchasing e-commerce developer MagCorp for an undisclosed amount. The deal is seen by some as more of a soft acquisition, as it mostly involves MagCorp's four developers joining ShopGate's team of 132 engineers at its headquarters in Butzbach, Germany.
Shopgate allows merchants to build mobile storefronts using their platform. It differentiates itself from similar competitors by integrating with popular shopping cart providers. MagCorp is a four-person development team best known for its backend work on the eBay-owned Magento e-commerce platform. Members of the group—Alexander Wesselburg, André Kraus, Stephan Recknagel and Peter Liebig—have worked on other projects like mail subscription service Glossybox, clothing retailer Luxodo and online car dealership Autoda.
The purpose of the purchase is to better integrate ShopGate with Magento, ShopGate's COO Wladimir Baranoff-Rossine told TechCrunch.
"Shopgate has a team of 132 but is looking to grow to over 200 by the end of the year," Baranoff-Rossine said to the source, adding that developers are needed "to handle more shopping carts."
The acquisition of MagCorp may be the first of many, especially as ShopGate continues to grow. It currently has over 5,200 merchants registered to use its platform, 4,200 of which use the mobile version of the service as well.
ShopGate recently opened an office in Palo Alto, California, and has plans to expand further. The company told TechCrunch in June 2013 that it had raised $7 million in funding from Danish venture capital firm Northcap, bringing its total funding to over $9 million.