Magicpin Raises $7 mn in Series B Financing

magicpin, an Indian local discovery, rewards and commerce platform, headquartered in Gurugram, has announced a Series B fund raise of $7 million from Lightspeed India Partners, Waterbridge Ventures and two global family offices. Srivatsan Rajan (Chairman, Bain & Co India) and Sahil Barua (CEO, Delhivery) have also invested in the company in individual capacity.

magicpin is a technology company that uses location intelligence to deliver delightful discovery, recommendations and rewards for local experiences. magicpin users share their experiences across categories like restaurants, nightlife, beauty and fashion through pictures that surface in other user’s feeds, inspiring them to discover and try these experiences, with the added benefit of rewards for spending at participating merchants. In addition to supporting community-driven discovery, the app makes personalized recommendations to its users based on the consumption pattern of the user and/or similar users on the magicpin network.

The company was founded in 2015 by Anshoo Sharma and Brij Bhushan who were colleagues at Bain & Co and immediately prior to magicpin were investors at Lightspeed Venture Partners and Nexus Venture Partners respectively. magicpin is currently live in Delhi/NCR, Mumbai and Bangalore. The funds raised will be used to enhance the product, strengthen the leadership team and to go deeper and wider across categories and geographies.

magicpin has grown 7x in the last 12 months to reach $40M in annual business that it drives to its merchant base. It has more than a million users who have shared 5 million+ experiences and are highly active on the app, with average daily sessions of more than 30 minutes. Premium brands and thousands of local merchants have tapped into this engaged audience to acquire users, drive repeat purchase and increase their utilization and profitability.

Commenting on the funding, Anshoo Sharma, Co-founder & CEO, magicpin, said “Spending is shifting from ownership to experiential happiness - dining out with someone special, chilling out with friends in a coffee shop, a walk through Old Delhi, or simply shopping from the secret pop stores selling international labels in local markets. Being the first among one's group to experience and share is a badge of honor. magicpin is the place for users to discover and share such experiences and get rewarded for doing so.

Over the last 12 months we have invested in building a product that delivers strong user retention and purchase frequency and validating unit economics at a neighborhood level. This infusion of funds will help us scale across cities and categories.”

Bejul Somaia, MD, Lightspeed India Partners, said “The vast majority of commerce is, and will continue to be, transacted offline. magicpin’s metrics reflect early but exceptional success in capturing smartphone-wielding users and directing their offline spend to participating merchants, while creating compelling ‘hooks’ that cause users to engage and transact with unusually high frequency through the app.”