MobiKwik, an online payments platform which is competing against Paytm and Freecharge in India, will reportedly invest nearly $45 million this year in order to expand its user base on the platform.
Further, the company is aiming to rack up $10 billion worth of transactions on the platform. The company, along with Paytm, has benefited a lot from the recent demonetization drive announced by the Government of India.
Speaking about the same, Upasana Taku, Co-Founder of MobiKwik said,
We aim to increase the number of our users to 150 million by the end of this year, targeting $10 billion GMV. The investment of Rs. 300 crores will be deployed in loyalty initiatives, expanding our reach & network, and launching other financial services such as loans & investments on our platform.
The money, which it plans to invest — $45 million, which roughly converts to around Rs 300 crore, will be used towards loyalty initiatives, expanding the company’s reach and network, and for launching other finance-related service such as loans and investments.
The company is launching ‘SUPERCASH’, which is a loyalty initiative that is aimed to promote digital payments among its users with benefits on every transaction. Under this, users can earn reward points at all MobiKwik merchants, including their local mom and pop stores.
Additionally, users can also save money every time they transact on Mobikwik, said the company in a statement. It has also said that the users of MobiKwik can start earning Supercash points from next week.
Commenting on this new offering, Daman Sonic, Vice President for Growth at MobiKwik, said,
Indian consumers are value conscious, like to save money on every transaction and are taking to digital payments in a big way. Supercash will therefore evolve a user’s relationship with MobiKwik and develop a deeper association as the user benefits on every transaction made on our platform.
Earlier, the company’s chief executive had said that they are planning to raise a new funding round that would value the company at over $1 billion, giving it the “unicorn” tag. With such a valuation, the company will join the likes of Flipkart, Paytm, Snapdeal, ShopClues, and Hike.
MobiKwik was founded by Upasana Taku and Bipin Singh in the year 2009. Till now, the company has raised more than $126 million in six founding rounds from nine investors, including Sequoia Capital, American Express Ventures, Cisco Investments, MediaTek, among others.
