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 Decebmer 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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