Nearbuy

nearbuy.com
Type of business Private Limited Company
Type of site
 Online Services Marketplace
Headquarters Gurgaon, Haryana, India
Area served India
Founder(s) Ankur Warikoo
Snehesh Mitra
Ravi Shankar
CEO Ankur Warikoo
Industry Hyperlocal eCommerce
Employees 300+
Launched August 2015
Current status Active

nearbuy.com is a hyper-local eCommerce company based out of India. As a business, it allows customers to discover, buy and save on merchants nearest to them (thus the name, near-buy).

nearbuy.com operates in all categories of stepping-out for the customer, comprising

  • Food & Beverage
  • Beauty & Wellness
  • Movies & Events
  • Things to do (Amusement parks etc)
  • Hotels
  • Local Shopping (Organized retail)

Incorporated in May 2010 as Groupon India Private Limited, the company operated as a 100% subsidiary of Groupon Inc until August 2015, when it went through a management buyout and in the process changed its name to nearbuy.com,[1] after successfully raising USD 17Mn (about INR100 crores) funding from Sequoia India,[2] an arm of a Menlo Park, California-based venture capital firm, Sequoia Capital.

nearbuy.com has Ankur Warikoo as the Cofounder & CEO, along with 2 other founders.

History

Early History

Groupon entered India by acquiring SoSasta.com (a deal website) in 2011, then changed its name to Crazeal (short for Crazy Deal) because the domain name and trademark they wanted (Groupon) had already been taken by someone else in India. Eventually, after winning a legal battle, the company rebranded itself to Groupon India in 2013.[3]

When it started operations in India as Crazeal in 2011, it featured one daily deal on the best things to do, see, eat and buy across 10 cities in India. The top 3 players in the Indian deal-buying space at the time were Snapdeal, Dealsandyou and mydala, with SoSasta a distant fourth, according to a comScore study.[4]

Management Buyout

In August 2015, Groupon India went through a Management Buyout with the assistance of Sequoia India, to create an independent entity named nearbuy.com.

In the words of the then CEO of Groupon India and current CEO and co-founder of nearbuy, Ankur Warikoo, "We feel the path (Groupon) India will follow to become a leader in local commerce may not be one that Groupon follows globally." [5]

A similar sentiment was earlier echoed by Groupon Inc.’s interim Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Brian Kayman, “India, like Korea, is a fast-moving and competitive market that we believe will need significant investment to fully unlock value.”[6]

After the rebranding of nearbuy.com in August 2015, Groupon became a minority stakeholder in nearbuy.com. The new entity (nearbuy) has one member each on its board from Sequoia India and Groupon (aside from Ankur Warikoo representing the nearbuy founders).

Funding from Paytm

In December 2017, nearbuy.com merged with Little App, while raising fresh capital from Paytm[7]. As part of the deal, the two businesses of nearbuy.com and Little App (nearbuy.com's competitor in the space, ranked number 2) would merge under the leadership of Cofounder & CEO, Ankur Warikoo, while Paytm will acquire majority ownership of the businesses. Sequoia India and Groupon still continue to be shareholders of the merged entity.

Business

Business Model

nearbuy.com does not charge anything from merchants for listing their services on the platform. Once they list the services, consumers pay nearbuy for the services of the merchants. After receiving full payment from a customer, nearbuy keeps its commission and transfers the balance amount to the merchant after the product or service is availed.

The commission is 15-16% at an average, and it ranges from 2% to 25% based on the merchant popularity and categories.

Categories

nearbuy.com operates in all categories of stepping-out for the customer, comprising

  • Food & Beverage
    • Restaurants
    • Pubs
    • QSRs (fast food)
    • Cafes
  • Beauty & Wellness
    • Spa
    • Salon
    • Gyms
    • Healthcare
  • Movies & Events
  • Things to do
    • Amusement & Water parks
    • Entertainment centers
  • Travel
    • City hotels
    • Local getaways
  • Local Shopping (Organized retail)

Products sold on nearbuy.com

nearbuy.com lists everything that a merchant has to offer, on its platform

  • Prepaid offers
    • Limited menu offers with significant discounts
    • Prepaid (customer has to pay in advance)
  • Postpaid offers
    • Full menu offers with limited discounts
    • Postpaid (customer pays after availing the service)
  • Free deals
    • Customers do not have to pay anything to get these offers

Geographic Markets

As of May 2018, nearbuy operated in the following cities (33) in India:[8]

AgraDelhiJaipurchennai
AhmedabadNoidaJodhpurNagpur
AmritsarFaridabadKanpurPondicherry
AurangabadGoaKochiPune
BangaloreGurgaonKolkataShimla
ChandigarhGuwahatiLucknowSurat
ChennaiHyderabadLudhianaUdaipur
CoimbatoreIndoreMeerutVadodra
DehradunMumbaiVisakhpatnam

Shareholding

nearbuy's major stakeholders in India include:

  • Paytm (One97) - with an investment rumored to be around $20Mn
  • Sequoia India – with an investment of USD 20 million
  • Groupon, Inc.
  • nearbuy co-founders - Ankur Warikoo, Ravi Shankar, Snehesh Mitra

Awards & Recognition

Awards – 2013

The company won 4 awards from World Brand Congress, an independent not-for-profit body.

  • Marketing Campaign of the Year – 2013[9] (The Great Onion Deal)
  • Digital Marketer of the Year – 2013[10] (Sachin Kapur, CMO)
  • Brand Excellence in E-Commerce and Internet Sector[11]
  • 50 Most Talented CMOs of India[12] (Sachin Kapur, CMO)

Recognitions – 2014

  • Fortune India’s 40 Under 40[13] (Ankur Warikoo)
  • Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Award – Most Promising Category[14] (Ankur Warikoo)

References

  1. ↑ "Company Overview of Nearbuy India". https://www.bloomberg.com/. Bloomberg. Retrieved 26 May 2016. External link in |website= (help)
  2. ↑ Elahi, Amina (10 August 2015). "Groupon gives up control of India business unit". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 26 May 2016.
  3. ↑ Singh, Devika. "65% of Groupon users have already moved to Nearbuy: CEO Ankur Warikoo" (17 February 2016). Business Today. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
  4. ↑ Kumar, Kumar. "Will Rebranding SoSasta As Crazeal Help Groupon in India?". TechInAsia. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
  5. ↑ Bailay, Rasul (10 August 2015). "Groupon Inc no longer controls Groupon India; to be rebranded as Nearbuy". Economic Times. Retrieved 26 May 2016.
  6. ↑ Elahi, Amina (10 August 2015). "Groupon gives up control of India business unit". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 26 May 2016.
  7. ↑ Bansal, Varsha (2017-12-07). "Nearbuy and Little Internet merge, Paytm gets majority stake". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2018-05-21.
  8. ↑ nearbuy. nearbuy http://www.nearbuy.com/. Retrieved 27 May 2016. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  9. ↑ "Award Winners 2013". World Brand Congress. World Brand Congress. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
  10. ↑ "Award Winners 2013". World Brand Congress. World Brand Congress. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
  11. ↑ "Award for Brand Excellence in E-Commerce and Internet Sector". World Brand Congress. World Brand Congress. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
  12. ↑ "50 Most Talented CMOs of India". World Brand Congress. World Brand Congress. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
  13. ↑ "40 Under 40". Fortune India. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
  14. ↑ "APEA 2014 INDIA". Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards. APEA. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
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