We hear a new acquisition's in the works. It's Indonesia's Vara, a staff management startup that helps SMEs track attendance, calculate salaries and loans and handle payroll. They raised a $4.8M seed last year.

• Founded in 2020, investors include Go-Ventures, Sequoia India's Surge, Alpha JWC, FEBE Ventures, RTP Global and Taurus Ventures.

🤔 What's the deal?

While Vara was estimated to valued at $15.5M during their seed, the deal is said to be a $5.6M all-stock deal.

• This was reported by India's Entrackr, who cited a regulatory filing from the Registrar of Companies.
• Vara and Bukugaji (their platform)'s websites now show errors when searched up, suggesting the acquisition is true.

👀 Who's the buyer?

It's PagarBook! Founded in 2019, the startup operates a very similar business to Vara but in India, handling staff attendance, compliance, loans, payroll (and as of recently) employee savings accounts. Oh, and they're also from Sequoia Surge!

• They raised a $15M Series A in 2020 and reportedly raised additional funding last year at a $100M valuation.
  

Not the best of times. PagarBook allegedly laid off 80 employees last year due to cash shortages and product failures.

🤓 Why the buy?

Perhaps SEA expansion is on the table. It's all speculation for now! There haven't been any official company announcements on the deal (and why they made it), but we'll keep you in the loop!