Qwikcilver

Qwikcilver is a technology company in India delivering gift card and stored-value card solutions to retail customers.[1] Qwikcilver is one of the leading providers of retailer gift cards and employee reward cards in India.[2][3][4] It manages the entire gift card programme for retailers including design, storage and transactions pertaining to it.[5] The company also launched Woohoo.in and Woohoo App as its B2C platforms that enable consumers and corporate to purchase gift cards and vouchers of various brands.[6][7][8][9]

Inception

Qwikcilver was founded in 2008 by Kumar Sudarshan and TP Pratap.[2][8][10] The company works on a Software-as-a-Service model (SaaS), enabling customers to launch the stored value card program with minimal upfront investment and provides a suite of services to create, deploy and manage the programme.[1][11] It provides a B2B backend technology to all the transactions that happen for plastic gift cards of various brands. It powers the gift card service for brands like Shoppers Stop,[12] Amazon India,[13] Flipkart, Myntra, Titan and Puma.[3][14]

Growth

Qwikcilver powers the entire gift card business of over 100 brands across 20 categories like apparel, jewellery, dining, spa and travel among others.[15] The company is estimated to have around 90% of the prepaid and gift card technology market share in India.[4][9][16][17] It processes over 50 million transactions annually across physical and digital cards across desktop and mobile in over 300 towns and cities.[15][18]

Qwikcilver network has grown by 300 per cent year-on-year in the last four years.[16] At present the gift card market in India is estimated at $500 million (over Rs 3,000 crore) and projected to treble over the next two years.[15]

Investors

Qwikcilver initially was funded by friends and family.[17] The company got the first round of undisclosed amount of funding from venture capitalist firms Helion Venture Partners and Accel Partners in 2008.[17] In 2014, Qwikcilver raised $10 million in a funding round led by US-based e-commerce giant Amazon.[19] The firm’s existing investors Helion Venture Partners and Accel Partners also participated in the round.[20]

Recent news and activities

In March 2015, Qwikcilver roped in Sanjay Tambwekar as its Chief Technology Officer (CTO).[21] Tambwekar did his MS from North Carolina State University and completed management studies from INSEAD, France.[21] He had previously worked with NetApp, Sasken Communications and Verifone.[21]

In August 2014, Mahesh Bhalla was appointed as its president. An alumnus of Institute of Management Technology (Ghaziabad), Bhalla was earlier executive director and general manager at Dell India’s consumer & SMB division.[22]

References

  1. 1 2 "Qwikcilver to enter 400 new Indian cities, international markets" Business Standard.com, 3 October 2013. Retrieved on 07 April 2016.
  2. 1 2 "Qwikcilver eyes Rs 2,000-crore gift cards by March-end", The Economic Times, 6 January 2016. Retrieved on 07 April 2016.
  3. 1 2 "Growing demand for gift cards boosts sales at Qwikcilver", Live Mint, 23 April 2015. Retrieved on 07 April 2016.
  4. 1 2 "Qwikcilver achieves 90% Market Share in Gift Card Technology", The Tech Panda, 10 September 2013. Retrieved on 07 April 2016.
  5. "Woohoo : Gifting without a Reason", Published on afaqs! on 12 October 2015. Retrieved on 07 April 2016.
  6. "Now, manage all your currencies on one platform", Business Standard, 22 April 2015. Retrieved on 07 April 2016.
  7. "Woohoo launches its new gifting campaign", Exchange4Media, 11 March 2016. Retrieved on 07 April 2016.
  8. 1 2 "Online Gifting Start-Up Qwikcilver Launches Mobile Gifting Store Woohoo.in", The Tech Portal, Retrieved on 07 April 2016.
  9. 1 2 "Qwikcilver Launches Gift Card Superstore - Woohoo.in", Silicon India News, 13 August 2015. Retrieved on 07 April 2016.
  10. Company Website "Qwikcilver Management" Qwikcilver.com, Retrieved on 07 April 2016.
  11. Bloomberg.com, Retrieved on 07 April 2016.
  12. "Shoppers Stop Launches Gift Cards - Powered by QwikCilver Solutions" Businesswireindia.com, 22 May 2012. Retrieved on 07 April 2016.
  13. "Amazon.in Gift Cards issued by QwikCilver" Amazon.in. Retrieved on 07 April 2016.
  14. Medianama.com, 13 November 2014. Retrieved on 07 April 2016.
  15. 1 2 3 Medianama.com, 5 August 2015. Retrieved on 07 April 2016
  16. 1 2 Deccan Herald, 8 June 2015, Retrieved on 07 April 2016.
  17. 1 2 3 The Times of India epaper 22 October 2015. Retrieved on 07 April 2016.
  18. Techcircle.vccircle.com, 4 August 2015. Retrieved on 07 April 2016.
  19. "QwikCilver raises $10M from Amazon & existing investors 6 January 2016. Retrieved on 07 April 2016.
  20. "Amazon joins India startup story, backs gift cards company", The Times of India, 24 December 2014. Retrieved on 07 April 2016.
  21. 1 2 3 "QwikCilver ropes in Sanjay Tambwekar from NetApp as CTO", Techcircle.vcircle.com, 5 March 2015. Retrieved on 07 April 2016.
  22. "QwikCilver Solutions appoints Mahesh Balla as President", The Hindu BusinessLine, 28 August 2014. Retrieved on 07 April 2016.
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