FreeCharge raises $80 million in Series-C funding

FreeCharge, a mobile transactions platform, on Friday announced that it has raised $80 million in Series-C funding.

As part of this round, new investors Valiant Capital Management & Tybourne Capital Management came on board. The round also saw participation from existing investors, Sequoia Capital, RuNet and Sofina.
 

FreeCharge is a mobile commerce platform where users can pay their mobile, DTH and utility payments across most major operators. 

The company recently launched FreeCharge ‘Delights’ which allows consumers to get rewarded for all purchases from leading e-commerce players in India. It also has exclusive tie-ups as online promotions partner with leading consumer brands such as McDonalds and Baskin Robbins.
 

Alok Goel, CEO of FreeCharge said, "FreeCharge is at the forefront of the mobile commerce revolution which is taking place in India right now. We have been ahead of the curve and as a result, 85% of our transactions originate from mobile accompanied with very high customer loyalty. By virtue of the number of app transactions we drive, we are one of the biggest m-commerce players already.”
 

“This round of funding will be primarily used for product innovations on mobile, team expansion and buildingFreeCharge as a household brand.” He added.
 

The company claimed that mobile transactions on Freecharge app have grown around 60x in the last one year driven through 10 million app downloads.
 

Kunal Shah, Co-Founder of FreeCharge said, “This round of funding is a great validation of FreeCharge as a novel idea which can be scaled up to create a new category of itself. This has been made evident already with our existing customer base of more than 20 million.”
 

Sandeep Tandon, Co-Founder, FreeCharge said, “2014 has been a year where the innovative work put in by the team has been widely recognised. At the presitigious IAMAI awards FreeCharge won the Best Consumer Mobile Service & Best Ecommerce Website (Specialized Category) in India. We also bagged the Effie award for our launch marketing campaign Recharge Nahi FreeCharge”.
 

FreeCharge is a mobile commerce platform where users can pay their mobile, DTH and utility payments across most major operators including Vodafone, Airtel, Loop, Reliance, Idea, DOCOMO, Tata Indicom, S-Tel, Aircel, BSNL and more. FreeCharge is special because users have the power to make the recharge free.
 

FreeCharge doesn't just makes the process of recharging convenient, it also makes it rewarding, by way of discount coupons. For every recharge done on FreeCharge, the company gives customers discount coupons from top food joints and popular retailers, equivalent to your recharge amount, delivered to their mobile, inbox or even doorstep. These coupons can be used to save money when customers eat out, watch movies, book travel tickets, shop online, visit a salon, go gaming, pick up books, music, groceries etc