Helion & Accel-backed QwikCilver unveils social gifting application in private beta

Multi-brand gift card store Giftbig.com run by QwilCilver Solutions Pvt Ltd has launched a social gifting application, the 'friends club' wherein users can send gifts via Facebook. Touted as a brand engagement and marketing tool, friends club will allow a certain number of free gift cards that can be sent, with the option for users to top it.

Friends club is currently in private beta mode and goes to public beta in a week's time. T P Pratap, co-founder and chief marketing officer, QwikCilver and Giftbig, stated that this application will enable social gifting without the need to have addresses or e-mail IDs of friends. "Users will be able to send over gift cards of various brands with the help of a Facebook profile and no other detail is required," he added.

How it works

Users have to login in the friends club via Facebook. The page will show all people in the friends list and then the user needs to select the friend and then select a gift card. Users can choose from free cards from brands like Himalaya, Puma, Titan and have the option to go for cards of bigger amounts by opting to  pay for it online. The recipients will receive the gift card on their wall on Facebook from where they can click on it to avail the gift card.

What this whole process aims to ensure is a greater brand engagement and recall. "By the selection of brands there is a greater brand engagement and since the gift card is posted on the wall of the recipient it will be viewed by more people," added Pratap. Its objective is to become a social-to-local marketing platform and brand engagement tool.

Giftbig is run by QwikCilver,  a B2B backend technology provider for all the transactions that happen for plastic gift cards of various brands. It has a SaaS-based technology platform that all major outlets utilise to facilitate the transactions for cashless gift cards. QwikCilver boasts of client base of 4000+ brand outlets in more than 250 towns across the country. "We manage more than 3 million cards for more than 50 leading brands across categories," Pratap said.

Giftbig is a B2C e-commerce initiative from the company and it enables consumers and corporates to purchase gift cards and vouchers of various brands.

Bangalore based QwikCilver was founded by Pratap and Kumar Sudarshan  in 2008 and Giftbig was started in 2011. They received an undisclosed amount of funding from Helion Ventures and Accel Partners in the 2008.

(Edited by Prem Udayabhanu)