Tata Industries to hive off 4 startup businesses to Tata Digital: Report

Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg

Tata Industries will hive off some of its significant startup businesses such as Tata Cliq, Tata Cliq Luxury, Tata CLIQ Palette and Tata Health to Tata Digital in the next two weeks as part of a move to consolidate the scalable ecommerce entities under one roof, according to a report by business daily The Economic Times.

The development comes amid a larger group consolidation strategy led by its principal investment holding company, Tata Sons, which has been merging similar businesses under various Tata group companies to cut costs and focus on building scale as well as competitive edge.

Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.

“Capital allocation efficiency and scale are the focus here. Smaller businesses need to scale up to be profitable and those that can are being housed in entities that can do so,'' an executive was quoted as saying in the report. Tata Health will be integrated into Tata Digital's medical ecommerce business, 1mg, as per the report.

Tata Industries is an investment holding company and has incubated and promoted new business ventures. It has Tata Cliq, Tata Health, Inzpera Life Sciences, Flisom Solar Modules, Tata Strategic Management Group, Tata IQ, Tata Class Edge and Studi under its wing.

In November 2021, Tata Consumer Products acquired Tata SmartFoodz from Tata Industries Limited while Tata Advanced Materials was moved into Tata Aerospace.

Tata Industries has incubated ventures in several sectors, including control systems, information technology, financial services, auto components, aerospace and defence, telecom hardware and telecommunication services.

Presently, Tata Cliq is run by Tata UniStore, which is jointly owned by Tata Industries and the group’s lifestyle retail venture, Trent. Tata Cliq has exited the consumer electronics category, which formed 50-55 percent of its business, and its consumer electronics, smartphones and appliances division has been integrated with Croma, Tatas’ flagship consumer electronics retail chain.

Tata Sons has been integrating and onboarding several brands on Tata Neu, its digital app launched officially in April. The app offers consumers access to brands such as BigBasket, 1mg, Tata CLiQ, Croma and Indian Hotels Company Limited.