Facebook has acquired Bangalore-based start-up Little Eye Labs.
The deal, which marks Facebook’s first acquisition in India, could further boost the nation’s start-up ecosystem.
Little Eye Labs, headed by Subbu Subramanian, builds mobile app analysis tools for app developers and testers.
These would tell the over 1 billion Facebook users things like measuring app installs, data usage, as well as issues such as battery drain, memory issues and app crash reports, amongst other things.
This analysis is done on Google’s Android platform, as well as on Apple, Windows and Linux.
While the deal size was not disclosed, analysts estimated that the world’s largest social networking company has forked out around $15 million.
Subramanian, who is in the US at present, could not be contacted.
Post deal, the Little Eye Labs team will work closely with Facebook to improve its mobile development and take it to a new level, according to a posting on the company website.
“This is Facebook's first acquisition of an Indian company, and we are happy to become part of such an incredible team,” the post added.
Facebook has been wooing Indian app developers and Little Eye Labs for some time, according to market watchers.
The US firm is trying to strengthen its mobile strategy, which has come under increasing pressure from Wall Street.
Talent pool 'The deal will give Facebook access to a good talent pool from India along with a technology that could help track and improve the performance of its apps, according to Praveen Bhadada, Director, Market Expansion, Zinnov.
The move follows the acquisition of online bus ticket booking firm RedBus.in by Naspers last year.
Big boost “This is definitely a boost to start-ups and it would rejuvenate app development in India,” said Vivek Jain, founder of StrApp, another mobile app developer.
Others agree. “While from a Facebook perspective it could be a small step, it’s a giant step from an Indian start-up ecosystem perspective,” said Zinnov’s Bhadada.
The number of technology start-ups has quadrupled since 2006 and venture capitalists and industry bodies like Nasscom, with its 10k initiative, are out to boost the enterprises
venkatesh.ganesh@thehindu.co.in