Lycos, Apollo International form joint venture

Lycos, one of the widely recognized Internet brands, and Apollo International Ltd, of the Apollo Group, on Wednesday signed an agreement to launch a joint venture to provide end-to-end solutions to global brands in deploying custom e-commerce platforms targeting Indian consumers.

This venture will be known as Apollo Lycos Netcommerce. Lycos brings its global expertise in digital media, technology and marketing in setting up online presence for large brands globally while Apollo contributes its expertise in logistics, inventory management and reverse logistics.

Apollo Lycos Netcommerce will design, develop and fulfil e-commerce, for brands online. It will enable and ensure a full-cycle fulfilment; right from setup, promoting their brands online, digital marketing of their products and services, driving engagement and sign ups, fulfilling orders, ensuring data security and consumer privacy, inventory tracking and management, order delivery and reverse logistics, said a statement.

"The plan is to bring a unique digital shopping experience to Indian consumers, where they can interact directly with global brands they love," said Apollo International Ltd chairman and managing director Raaja Kanwar.

"We are aiming at providing an innovative service for big brands to enter India seamlessly." said Lycos chairman and CEO Suresh Reddy.