m.Paani, Indian loyalty and marketing platform for local retailers and brands to directly reach massmarket consumers, raised a pre-series A round of funding from Blume Ventures and angel investors Adil Allana of The Allana Group a leading FMCG group (includes brand London Dairy, among many others) in India and the Middle East, Aprameya Radhakrishna, Founder of Taxiforsure, and Gautam Ivatury, CoFounder of Meradoctor and Signal Point Partners.
The company is an award winning loyalty and marketing solution for local retailers - such as kiranas, general medical stores, garments, electronics, and more - to achieve business growth and modernization.
“I joined m.Paani to delight my customers and make sure they keep coming back to my store,” said Vijay Shah, owner of Jeevan Society Stores, a bustling general store in the heart of Mumbai. “Customers today have many options to choose from, and by being a m.Paani partner I can provide my customers a modern shopping experience, comparable to large supermarkets.”
m.Paani empowers local retailers with its mobile based loyalty program so that they can deliver best in class customer value and service. This personalized loyalty program helps m.Paani business partners to retain existing customers and attract new customers. Customers can redeem the m.Paani points they earn when shopping at m.Paani retail partners for over 150 free rewards such as datapacks, talk time, discounts, movie tickets, cricket sets, volvo and train travel, electronics, household appliances, and more!
m.Paani retail partners get a fully integrated loyalty and marketing platform, which includes a business website and personalized mobile app, and are able to market their business and products, and push offers via multiple digital channels, including app, web and SMS, all from the palm of their hand.
The company launched in March 2014 is partnered with hundreds of retail partners in Mumbai, and multiple brands partners including Vodafone India. Today, tens of thousands of m.Paani members are shopping at m.Paani partner retailers. It plans to expand into new cities in India over the next 12 months. In the next three years m.Paani aims to scale pan-India, and then expand across emerging markets, including into Africa and Southeast Asia.
The company is founded by Akanksha Hazari, a Princeton University and Cambridge University alumnus, an Ashoka Fellow, and two-time Indian national squash champion. Most recently, Akanksha received the Vital Voices Economic Empowerment Award 2016 from Secretaries of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Madeline Albright for m.Paani.
On this occasion, Akanksha shares, “m.Paani is revolutionising mass market consumer behaviour with the first loyalty program that enables every Indian to earn points and avail of offers at their local neighbourhood shops, and redeem them for exciting, life-changing rewards. Using a mobile-based platform m.Paani gives consumers direct access to local shops, brands, products, and offers with a touch of a button and the opportunity to maximise value from all their expenses. I believe that the future of Indian retail lies in empowering local businesses with the tools and technology that enable them to reach and serve the new generation of Indian consumers who are online, and seek value and service.”
Sajid Fazalbhoy, Principal at Blume Ventures adds, “We are delighted to partner with Akanksha and her team at m.Paani. The company provides a revolutionary product to millions of consumers that would help build affinity to brands and local retailers alike. The brands find the m.Paani platform an immensely valuable tool to help identify, target and understand their customers better via data insights on their consumption patterns. The bundled offering provided by the company has attracted large brand partnerships and a large number of offline merchants on board to help deliver an easy to use, and relevant loyalty program for its mass-market consumer base. In a short period of time, the m.Paani loyalty program has achieved redemption rates similar to those of the best in class loyalty programs in the world. At scale, the company would own large amounts of data across the retail value chain which was until now a data dark segment. We see this as a massive opportunity that would interest all stakeholders that want to target India’s large population."
Paul Thachil, CEO of the Consumer Products division at Allana says, “We are happy to be a part of the m.Paani journey in India and believe that loyalty programs like these will bring a lot of value to marketers looking to connect with their consumers and understand their purchase patterns and aspirations. In addition, m.Paani is a great product to help build brand loyalty with both consumers and a brand’s retail network”.
Through continuous innovation, the company remains focused on its vision: to be India’s first and leading loyalty platform that enables the majority of Indian consumers and small businesses to achieve their aspirations and prosper.
