Popular online mobile and everything recharging platform Freecharge has raised a $80 Million worth Series C round of funding, led by Valiant Capital Management and Tybourne Capital Management. The round also saw participation from existing investors, which include Sequoia Capital, RuNet, and Sofina.
The Tech Portal had last year reported that Freecharge was in talks to raise a round in excess of $50 Million. This round comes just months after FreeCharge raised a $33 Million worth Series B round last year, which was led by Sequoia Capital with Belgium-based investment company Sofina and Russia-based VC firm ru-Net being the other two investors.
FreeCharge lets users select coupons for an amount, equal to the amount of recharge you do on your prepaid mobile phone. FreeCharge has also expanded to DTH, Data Card and other services. It currently claims to be processing over 20 million customers currently. Its mobile app was downloaded 10 million times last year. 85% of company’s transactions originate via its Mobile recharging platform.
Kunal Shah, Co-Founder of FreeCharge said,
This round of funding is a great validation of FreeCharge as a novel idea which can be scaled up to create a new category of itself. This has been made evident already with our existing customer base of more than 20 million.
The company recently launched FreeCharge ‘Delights’ which allows consumers to get rewarded for all purchases from leading e-commerce players in India. It also has exclusive tie-ups as online promotions partner with leading consumer brands such as McDonalds and Baskin Robbins.
With over a $100 Million raised in a matter of 4 months, FreeCharge aims to expand its customer user base at an aggressive pace, with eventual expansion to Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America. This round of funding will be primarily used for product innovations on mobile, team expansion and building FreeCharge as a ‘household brand’.
