Sequoia India funds Groupon India, now called ‘Nearbuy’

Groupon has spun off its Indian subsidiary rebranding it as 'Nearbuy', with funding from private equity investor Sequoia India, to push its expansion across 35 plus cities in India.

The company would now function as an independent entrepreneurial entity, while still continuing to have Groupon as a large shareholder.

The past three years, had seen Groupon India deliver on an aggressive growth strategy, boosting its presence across in the country, widening the customer base and partnering with quality merchants.

Since its initial days, the company had gone on to command over 50 per cent market share in the Indian discount-coupon industry with  2014 seeing the company sell over 7 million vouchers with a redemption rate of 97 per cent amongst its customers.

The company had featured 100,000+ merchant locations in the year, with a merchant retention rate of 70 per cent+. Mobile had been a key driver accounting for over 40 per cent of Groupon India's business, up from under 10 per cent a year ago.

The Economic Times quoted Ankur Warikoo, CEO and founder, Nearbuy, "The unique location based services will allow merchants to target consumers that are closer to their establishments and will offer unprecedented value to address critical business requirements.

"The local ecommerce market in India is growing at a never-seen-before pace, and mobile penetration is facilitating that. Add to that Groupon's Global support and we become a truly local player with global expertise and technology."

In a unique move, Groupon India would launch a new website, mobile app and corporate logo as part of its rebranding process.

"You can buy phones but you can't buy services online. It's a humongous market and could be worth $1 billion," The Times of India quoted Mohit Bhatnagar, MD with Sequoia Capital. "Groupon India has a 97 per cent redemption rate."

The company offers hyper-local service to users partnering with firms across several categories including F&B, travel and wellness to offer local deals.

The new company named Nearbuy would expand the service from the current 12 to 30 cities. The leadership at the firm would comprise six co-founders, including Ankur Warikoo as CEO and Sumeet Kapur as CFO.