Nearbuy
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).
| 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 | Ravi Shankar |
| Industry | Hyperlocal eCommerce |
| Employees | 300+ |
| Parent | Paytm |
| URL | www |
| Launched | August 2015 |
| Current status | Active |
Nearbuy.com operates in all categories of stepping-out for the customer, and functions like an online travel guide.
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 US$17Mn (about INR100 crores) funding from Sequoia India,[2] an arm of a Menlo Park, California-based Venture Capital firm, Sequoia Capital.[3]
History
Starting
After the rebranding of Nearbuy 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 merged with Little App, while raising fresh capital from Paytm.[4] As part of the deal, the two businesses of Nearbuy and Little App (nearbuy.com's competitor in the space, ranked number 2) would merge under the leadership of Co-founder & 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 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.
Areas served
As of May 2018, Nearbuy operated in the following cities (33) in India:[5]
Awards and recognition
Recognitions – 2014
- Fortune India's 40 Under 40[6] (Ankur Warikoo)
- Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Award – Most Promising Category
References
- "Company Overview of Nearbuy India". bloomberg.com/. Bloomberg. n.d. Retrieved 26 May 2016.
- Elahi, Amina (10 August 2015). "Groupon gives up control of India business unit". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 26 May 2016.
- "Ankur Warikoo Step Down". Paytm-owned Nearbuy's CEO.
- Bansal, Varsha (7 December 2017). "Nearbuy and Little Internet merge, Paytm gets majority stake". The Economic Times. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
- "www.nearbuy.com". nearbuy. nearbuy. n.d. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
- "40 Under 40". Fortune India. Retrieved 27 May 2016.