Type of business Private Headquarters Gurgaon, India | Available in English | |
Type of site E-commerce
(Online shopping) Founded March 2014 (March 2014) Area served New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru | ||
Crownit is an app-only merchant discovery and privilege platform founded by Sameer Grover and Ashish Munjal in 2014 and is owned by GoldVIP Technology Solutions. The app connects consumers to local merchants and gives cashback on lifestyle spends. The company is headquartered in Gurgaon and operational in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.
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Crownit raised series A funding of $5.5 million in May 2015 from Accel Partners and Helion Ventures. It has over 10,000 registered merchants and is driving GMV worth Rs. 36 crores per month across Food & Beverage, Beauty, Retail, Movies, Lifestyle, Hotels and Special Experiences categories.
History
The company began its operations in May 2014 in Delhi/NCR with its initial category of 'Food and Beverages'. In 2015, it was launched in two other major Indian metropolises Mumbai and Bangalore. As of June 2016, Crownit provides cashback in these three cities and in eight categories.
Funding
Crownit raised $380,000 in three rounds from angel funding in 2014. Less than a year later, in March 2015, the company secured $5.5 million (about Rs 34.1 crore) in a Series A funding from Accel Partners and Helion Ventures.
Operation
Users can find offline outlets on the App, make transactions and get cashback in terms of Crowns (a virtual currency). To get cashback, a user has to either make an offline transaction on a listed merchant site or an online transaction on the app. For F&B category, a picture of the bill has to be uploaded in the app to claim the cashback. The other categories do not require this process as the user pays through a payment gateway and the cashback is credited automatically.The earned cashback can be used on purchasing movie, shopping and lifestyle vouchers/coupons, making phone/DTH/Landline bill payments and to make donations to charity.
The app also owns a weekly contest property in which offline and In-app transactions can earn users rewards. The feature is called Crownit Weekly Rush and was launched in September, 2015.
Crownit also partnered with OYO Rooms in January 2016 for its Weekend Getaways category, adding 500 plus OYO properties across India.
Business model
Crownit operates as an O2O (online to offline) platform which allows local merchants to list themselves and attract consumers. The merchants can create customized deals - which are dynamic, hyperlocal and targeted to specific audiences based on their gender, location, spending habits and day of week & time of day. It helps consumers in their buying decision by offering them curated and personalized options based on their spending habits, interests and other social data.
There are over 800,000 app users, and more than 10,000 merchants listed on this O2O platform.
At present, the app is driving GMV worth Rs. 36 crores per month across all categories.