Magento bought an Israeli startup and is moving it to Philly

The idea of RJMetrics’ office becoming a Magento beachhead in Philly post-acquisition just got its first case study: Magento, whose headquarters is in Campbell, Calif., has acquired an Israeli startup called Shopial and is moving it into the Widener Building in Center City.

No financial terms from the transaction were immediately made available but, as part of the deal, the company’s team of four will be moving to Philadelphia, said Magento Head of Analytics Bob Moore. Two have already moved to Philly and two more are coming, after their immigration paperwork gets settled, Moore said.

In a nutshell, Shopial — founded in 2011 by CEO Ofir Tahor and Nissim Lehyani — builds software that helps online businesses create a social version of their stores.

“Strategically, this makes sense because, at its core, it’s an ecommerce plaftform,” said Moore. “This is Magento’s first entry into offering something in the universe of social commerce. We’re building up the capacities where we see opportunity.”

Though the corporate team at Magento led the acquisition process, Moore says he was actively involved in the move to acquire the company from the beginning, including the due diligence process and scoping out how the integration would happen. (Having already sold a company before, Moore knows what it’s like to be on the other side of the negotiating table.)

So, why bring the company to Philadelphia and not the West Coast?

“A big part of why the team is coming to Philly is because of the team we have here at the Magento BI [Business Intelligence] office,” Moore said. “It was a natural fit. And it didn’t hurt that were just acquired ourselves so, having been through the process of integrating ourselves to the company we’re able to help Shopial have a successful integration. That’s an added bonus.”