Mumbai-based gifting platform CheersOye! secures angel funding

Social payments and gifting platform CheersOye! has succeeded in closing an angel round of funding, raising investment from a clutch of HNI investors.

The startup was founded by Ex-Yahoo analytics lead Bhavna Lalchandani and ex-Zee Digital marketing expert Rahul Shrivastava in 2015. 

The platform allows users to pay via an app for instant personalised experiences or send the same to a friend’s mobile instantly via e-vouchers. It focuses on casual sharing and social experiences such as dining, spa & salon, fitness, travel, entertainment, and lifestyle experiences such as jewelry and fashion, to name a few. While it is currently live only in the F&B and Spa & Salon segments, it will soon be expanding to the other mentioned genres. 

The company claims to have crossed 50,000 downloads, with 35 percent repeat usage. They plan to tie-up with about 1,000 partner merchant outlets covering more than 50 localities in Mumbai within this quarter. 

Through the platform, sender recommend a Personalised Treat/Experience to a recipient. On selecting a merchant and making a payment for the voucher value via CheersOye web or the mobile app, the voucher can be sent to the recipient. The recipient receives the e-voucher on his/her mobile phone/email id.. The voucher can be redeemed on it being shown to the merchant. 

Once a voucher is redeemed, the sender is updated immediately with an email or SMS confirmation. Merchants also get real-time updates on a dashboard with the voucher and recipient details. 

While the platform benefits customers with convenience and personalised experiences, it helps the merchant with new customer acquisition, real-time voucher tracking and analytics, and cross promotions to the right target audience. The merchant sees the appeal in an ROI-driven model, pay per performance basis, and a self serve model.

Some of the brands in their portfolio include The Barking Deer, Intercontinental Long & Short, Ramada Palm Grove, Baskin Robbins, Krispy Kreme, Persian Darbar, Bombay Barbeque and Cream Centre, and the Spas include Iosis, Enrich, Four Fountains, Envy Salon, Pep Salon, and NuAyurveda Clinic, among others.

Market overview

NearBuy, which was formerly known as Groupon, is one of the key players in this segment. Coupondunia, Grabon, Giftcardsindia, giftxoxo, and B2B gifting company 5By7 are a few other noteworthy players in the space. 

This segment has witnessed a number of players exploring the space, but no player has so far succeeded in capturing a dominant position in the market, which is still in its early stages.