Continuing with his startup funding spree,Chairman Emeritus Tata Sons, Ratan Tata has invested an undisclosed amount in online cash back and coupons website CashKaro.com.
With the new incoming cash, the company will now be using the fund to further build its technology, enter international markets, as well as towards brand awareness and to hire senior-level talent for the company.
This investment in CashKaro is the third investment from Ratan Tata this year. In January 2016, he had invested an undisclosed amount in DogSpot, an online store for pet supplies and Tracxn, startup research and data analytics firm.
CashKaro enables users to get cash back every time they shop online on its partner websites like Yatra, Jet, Flipkart, Booking.com, Hotels.com, Expedia, Myntra, and many more. It also offers discounts for more than 1,000 partner websites and has recently forayed into product search and discovery segments.
The company was founded in August 2013 by husband and wife duo – Swati Bhargava and Rohan Bhargava. It works on an affiliate model with e-commerce sites such as Amazon, Snapdeal and Shopclues where they receive a certain percentage of commission if they drive sales.
Since its launch two years ago, the company claims to have credited over Rs. 20 crore as cashback to users on its website. A couple of months ago, it raised Rs. 25 crore in Series A round of funding from Kalaari Capital. Prior to that, it had raised $750,000 from a group of UK-based investors.
The company’s founder claims that the company has driven over Rs. 150 crores of sales to its partners and the business is growing at 30-40% per month. At present, more than 1.5 million online shoppers earn cashback every 15 seconds via CashKaro.
Swati Bhargava, an ex-Goldman Sachs employee and founder of CashKaro, said,
We’re launching our cash-back site in Singapore over the next three months, and will also look to enter other markets in South-East Asia. We will also be launching our app in the next two quarters.
