Freecharge.in has raised R20Cr from Sequoia Capital in it's first round of funding. Funds will be used for expansion.
Freecharge.in allows users to recharge their mobiles in return for discount coupons, pushing more people into shopping online. The portal launched in August 2010, has tied up with at least 50 retailers and service providers, including McDonald's, Puma, Shoppers Stop and Jet Airways. It clains to have a user base of about 1.5Mn.
Freecharge.in had earlier raised seed funding from Sequoia Capital and Tandon Group, members of the Mumbai Angels in 2010. Accelyst Solutions Pvt. Ltd, the company behind Freecharge, was co-founded by Kunal Shah.
This is Sequoia second investment announced in January. Last week, it announced a R35Cr investment in Gurgaon based cloud telephony startup - Knowlarity.
Sequoia Capital, which has about $1.4Bn under management, has invested in several e-commerce companies in India, including $4Mn in in apparel and accessories ecommerce startup Freecultr. It has also invested in Fashionandyou.com and Healthkart.com.
KVEZAR VIEW
| Date | Transaction | Type | Buyer | Size ($mn) |
| 25/01/12 |
Accelyst Solutions (Freecharge.in) - Sequoia |
Venture Capital |
Sequoia Capital India |
4.00 |
| Date | Type | Buyer | Target | Size ($mn) | State |
| 17/02/12 |
Private Equity |
Updata Partners |
July Systems and Technologies Private Limited |
15.00 |
Completed |
| 16/02/12 |
Venture Capital |
Naya Venture |
Global Outlook Private Limited |
2.00 |
Announced |
| 15/02/12 |
Private Equity |
Norwest Venture Partners |
Manthan Software Services Private Limited |
15.00 |
Completed |
| 15/02/12 |
Venture Capital |
Rajan Anandan |
ReachAccountant.com |
- |
Completed |
Fund |
| Name | Corpus | Target Sector | Website | KeyContact |
| Sequoia Capital India |
|
BFSI
Healthcare
Retail
Infrastructure |
http://www.sequoiacap.com |
Rajiv Sabharwal Mohit BhatnagarSumir ChadhaGautam MagoShailesh LakhaniPorko ElangoAbhay Kumar PandeyK P. BalarajShailendra SinghSurendra JainG V RavishankarV T BharadwajNikhil BalaramanTaru Kapoor
|
Company |
| Name | Promoters | Office | Competitor | Website |
| Accelyst Solutions Private Limited (Freecharge.in) |
Tancom Electronics private Limited |
C- 1, Udyog Sadan 3, MIDC, Andheri (East) |
|
|
