B2X Secures $15M, Makes First Acquisition in India

SAN FRANCISCO, CA and MUNICH, GERMANY and MUMBAI, INDIA--(Marketwired - Oct 21, 2014) - B2X Care Solutions , the leading provider of customer care solutions for smartphones, announced today that it has raised $15 Million in Series B funding and has acquired majority share in, The Service Solutions (TSS) in India. TSS is a technology enabled services company, currently one of the Apple Authorized Service Providers in India and provides managed care services to smartphone manufacturers across the world. Through this acquisition all TSS service stores will be rebranded as B2X Care Solutions with plans for huge growth in 2015, expanding B2X's global footprint in India rapidly. Moving forward, B2X will leverage TSS's deep expertise and capabilities to transfer its existing SMARTBAR model into multi-brand service and retail stores in India.

"We couldn't be happier to announce our funding and acquisition of TSS at the same time. The financing will help us to aggressively grow our engineering and sales efforts in response to the expanding demand for our Smart Service Platform," said Thomas Berlemann, CEO of B2X Care Solutions. "For us to be successful in India, we know that it will require very strong local capabilities. TSS is a rising star in India and their cloud based capabilities completes the B2X technology roadmap. In addition, the TSS leadership team has a strong background and is extremely well connected in our industry in India, which opens up great opportunities for future growth."

TSS, which was founded in 2009 and employs approximately 200 people, at present is an Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP) and Apple Authorized Reseller (AAR). This authorization includes Service support for Apple Products at authorized locations, selling accessories for Apple products, Apple Protection Plans and Sale of Apple product. In addition to running these locations, TSS has built a highly efficient, cloud based CRM system. TSS also develops and licenses its After Market Support Platform software to OEMs, distributors and service providers for managing after sales processes.

"We have truly built a technology enabled services company with our own software development and evolved a cloud based After Market Support Platform, and this will further increase B2X's customer service focus in one of the fastest growing smartphone markets in the world," said Sreevathsa Prabhakar, Founder and Managing Director of TSS.

TSS at present has 19 operational Apple Authorised Service locations in India and few under construction, with plans to expand coverage significantly by the end of 2015 across the country. B2X will hire high caliber talent in India to support this expansion, for enhancement of its software development capabilities to serve customers globally, and for general business growth. The existing management team will continue to drive business in India and Middle East for B2X, with Sreevathsa becoming the Managing Director of the new entity.

Additional customers of TSS include companies such as Micromax, D-Link, HCL Infosystems, Voltas Limited, Fly Mobiles, and AnyData Technologies. B2X India will be headquartered in Mumbai with a subsidiary office in Dubai.

About B2X Care Solutions
B2X is the leading provider of customer care solutions for smartphone devices to manufacturers. Their unique Smart Service Platform consists of cloud based technology for improving customer care and best practice service delivery processes to ensure consistency and quality across service operations, supported by a global organization of highly experienced staff and a trusted and reliable operational fulfillment partner network. That's why they're the preferred choice for smartphone manufacturers in more than 110 countries worldwide. For additional information, visit www.b2x.com, B2X Twitter
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About Earlybird

Established in 1997 Earlybird has raised over EUR 700 million ($900 million) in fund commitments. We have backed more than 100 companies, some of which have sparked significant innovations in business and technology and resulted in large scale ($1bn+) IPOs and trade sales. Earlybird backs European companies with global ambitions and our active portfolio currently includes 32 companies across the consumer Internet and enterprise services space. Further information is available at: www.earlybird.com, Twitter: www.twitter.com/earlybirdvc. LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/earlybird-venture-capital or Facebook: www.facebook.com/EarlybirdVC. Earlybird's investor base includes some of the most renowned institutional investors worldwide. The capital committed by the EIF to the Earlybird 2012 Fund comes from the European Recovery Program (ERP) -- EIF Facility; and the LfA-Gesellschaft fu�r Vermo�gensverwaltung mbH (LfA) -- EIF Facility.