Designer Ecommerce Hub Fab.com Goes Shopping, Acquires Indian Tech Partner True Sparrow Systems

Online designer shop Fab.com, which boasts some nine million users, is insourcing its Indian technology partner, True Sparrow Systems, by acquiring the company. The buy was reported in The Economic Times which described it as a cash and stock deal. The value of the deal was not disclosed. The paper notes it’s the first time a U.S. based ecommerce company has acquired an Indian technology startup.

True Sparrow Systems announced the acquisition on its website, with founders Deepa Shah & Nishith Shah posting the following message

We are proud to announce that Fab has acquired True Sparrow.

We had founded True Sparrow in 2007 in Pune, India. Guided with a unique culture around Make Mistakes, Get Shit Done, and Ship It, the company has worked on innovative technology products.

Along the way, we met Jason Goldberg. Together, we founded Socialmedian. And later, the three of us along with Bradford Shellhammer founded Fab. Fab is everyday design. Millions of people around the world use Fab to discover everyday design products at great prices, to connect with the world’s most exciting designers, and to share their favorite design inspirations.

True Sparrow and Fab have always been one team. And today, we are one company. Today is a new beginning. Today is a start of another remarkable journey with the Fab family.

Onwards and upwards!

True Sparrow, which has 85 staff and is based in Pune, was also a technology partner for Fabulis — the predecessor to Fab, before the company pivoted from being a social network for the gay community to an ecommerce hub for selling designer goods. True Sparrow carried on working exclusively for Fab after the pivot.

The paper quotes Fab’s cofounder and CEO Jason Goldberg commenting on the acquisition: “A large part of our success has been due to the technology team at True Sparrow. We wanted to make sure that as we make Fab into a long-term sustainable business, the technology team is a part of the company. Ours has been much more of a partnership and collaboration than outsourcing. Now, it is great to bring it together as one company.”

Nishith is also quoted as saying: “There might not be any example of an Indian technology partner as the cofounder of a US ecommerce company. It is exciting for the team to become Fab employees.”