Incubator BlueChilli makes its first start-up acquisition in Vividways

Start-up incubator BlueChilli has made its first full acquisition of a venture, snapping up Vividways, an app designer and developer that specialises in loyalty programs.

The deal, for an undisclosed amount, will see Vividways founder Paul Williams move across to BlueChilli’s Sydney base to work alongside the other start-ups that it houses.

Vividways has contracts worth close to $2 million with a large pharmaceutical company and its partners.

The business creates mobile marketing and loyalty programs through its own proprietary software. It will use this system to work with other BlueChilli invested businesses, as well as branch out from the healthcare industry into other sectors.

Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin, founder of Blue Chilli Group, which has incubator spaces in Sydney and Melbourne, tells StartupSmart he has high hopes for the acquisition.

“We’ll be treating it like any of our previous investments but taking it though the process and growing it as a business,” he says.

“It will be working in the healthcare industry first, which is very underserviced in terms of social media and loyalty programs, before moving to other verticals next year.”

“We aren’t looking at it as a competitor to the other start-ups we have here, more as a distribution channel. The start-ups will support each other. This is a beneficial move.”

Eckersley-Maslin says that BlueChilli was looking for further growth, with the tech incubator set to take four further start-ups under its wing.

“We aim to take on one start-up a month and in the past 12 months we’ve taken on 14 start-ups,” he says. “Our goal is to have 100 start-ups by 2016 but I think we’ll smash that.”

“We are talking to a few intuitional funds about our own funding, but it’s way too early to be talking too much about that.”