Indian
firm FreeCharge, inventor of an online mobile phone and utilities bill
payment service which is already backed by U.S. venture capital investor
Sequoia Capital, said on Friday it has got a further $80 million
(approximately Rs. 494 crores) in fresh funding from investors including
Valiant Capital Management & Tybourne Capital Management.
The
company, founded in 2010, enables users to recharge pre-paid and
post-paid mobile phones online and get rewarded with discount shopping
coupons for using its site.
To
use FreeCharge, customers need to log into the website or mobile apps
to pay utility bills or top up their mobile prepaid plans. On doing so,
FreeCharge then sends these users coupons that can be redeemed at
popular e-stores like Flipkart and Amazon India. However, it isn’t
limited to only online stores. It also offers coupons for
brick-and-mortar store like McDonalds, Baskin Robbins, coffee shops and
so on.
FreeCharge
has a user base of more than 20 million and there has been 10 million
downloads of the app in the past year, co-founder Kunal Shah said.
“For
participating vendors, FreeCharge offers insight into consumer behavior
by tracking which coupons are redeemed and what products or services
they are used for. In addition to providing coupons, FreeCharge
eventually plans to expand into transaction advertising. It is eyeing
growth in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa,” adds Techcrunch.
FreeCharge’s chief executive Ashok Goel said 85 percent of its transactions are now conducted on mobile phones.
Posted by : Gizmeon
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