Taskbucks, a mobile only tasks marketplace that connects users with brands and helps the latter in increased retention of the former through gamification of sorts, has received $15 million in investment from Times Internet for a majority stake in the company.
The funds raised will be used by the startup to build more options for companies to increase their user base. It is planning to launch Taskbucks Pro, a premium version of Taskbucks where users can perform real-world tasks for brands to earn more money.
Kumar Apurva, CEO of Taskbucks, said,
We intend to use this funding to build out more ways for companies to leverage access to our 5 million strong and rapidly growing userbase. We will soon be launching Taskbucks Pro, a premium version of Taskbucks where users can perform real-world tasks for brands, to earn more. We’ll also be working closely with Times Internet to build our brand and drive growth of our mobile app.
Founded in 2014, Taskbucks is — in a layman language — is pretty much like a gamification platform for offline brands. It offers tasks to consumers who are then rewarded for finishing those tasks as per the requirements. The app is currently available only on Android platform, with an iOS version perhaps in works.
While it currently offers brands with options like app discovery, user retention, referral tasks, offer signups, and social content sharing, as promotions that they can offer consumers, the startup aims to include newer avenues like crowd sourced tasks, surveys, opinion polls, offline photo tasks, and other modules.
The app has already been downloaded 5 million times and adds 1 million new users each month. It is now targeting to cross 50 million downloads in the next two years.
The amount of money earned via app can be redeemed for mobile recharge, PayTM Cash, MobiKwik Money or can be used for postpaid bill payments. It has partnered with many companies such as Crashlytics, Tune, Parse, AppsFlyer, PayTM, etc.
Currently, for the user engagement and lead generation, the company is offering option like app discovery, user retention, referral tasks, offer signups, and social content sharing to the brands. It is soon going to introduce other options such as crowd sourced tasks, surveys, opinion polls, offline photo tasks, etc. to further increase the consumer engagement with the brand.
Miten Sampat, VP Corporate Development,Times Internet, says,
Taskbucks is reducing friction in the connection between consumers and companies, in a way that drives value for both. As hundreds of millions of Indians get connected with smartphones, Taskbucks is one of the few services that has an immediate and clear value proposition for the consumer. Led by a strong, experienced team, I’m confident Taskbucks will add value to millions of Indian consumers.
There are many similar mobile applications available which offers talktime for completing given tasks. However, there are a handful of companies in this space which have successfully raised significant amount of funding.
