Excl: Couponing venture Shop Pirate close to raising over $160K from existing investor

Shop Pirate, a deals and couponing platform owned by Hyderabad-based Snippets IT Solutions Pvt Ltd, is close to raising Rs 1 crore (over $160,000) in the second round of seed funding from existing investor Confidance Holding Pvt Ltd, a top company executive told Techcircle.in.

Shop Pirate, which raised Rs 50 lakh (around $80,000) in June this year, will use the fresh capital to set up offices in the US and Canada by next year.

"We expect to close the round early next year," Shop Pirate's co-founder Kulpreet Kaur said. "The money will be used to set up entities in the US and Canada—two developed markets where coupons business is seeing huge growth," she added.

The startup was founded in 2013 by Kaur and Suresh Kumar. Kaur holds an MBA Degree from Osmania University in Hyderabad. Earlier, she was chief operating officer at IBEE Solutions. Kumar comes with over 10 years experience in performance marketing. He had earlier founded a company called Geek IT Solutions.

Shop Pirate offers users coupons and deals on the web, mobile apps as well as on browser add-ons. The firm claims that the site currently offers over 5,000 active deals from over 500 national and international stores including Myntra, Jabong, FirstCry, Flipkart, eBay, redBus, Amazon, Expedia, Dominos and Yatra. These deals cater to various segments like gadgets, apparels, travel, food items and software.

Shoppers can also access multiple deals and discount vouchers across various stores without having to switch between the web pages, claims the firm. Moreover, customers are notified about their favourite store deals on a regular basis. In addition, users can submit coupons and deals they find from other sources and upload on the website.

"We have seen over 200 per cent growth over the past four months. The site currently gets more than 30,000 visits per day, of which around 70 per cent are unique visitors," said Kaur.

There are several players in couponing business with some prominent names such as Info Edge-backed Mydala, Rocket Internet-backed CupoNation and angels-backed Cashkaro.com, besides Times Internet's couponing ventures CouponDunia among others.

Growth in online shopping in India is on a tear and couponing sites are riding on the wave even though the business is high commoditised. Several buyers first check vouchers and discount coupons before making a purchase on an e-com site.

Established in 2013 by Anand Garikipati and Moukthik Reddy, Hyderabad-based Confidance Holdings is a tech-focused investment firm that invests up to Rs 2 crore in technology startups. The company has so far invested in two companies, namely Grocerkart and NumeroGraphic.

A University of New Orleans alumnus, Garikipati is owner of O&S Ratna Enterprise. Reddy, who holds an MBA in marketing, is currently director of Agon IT Solutions.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)