Fahad Khan launches a collaborative gifting platform- Bitgifting; With the VISA Twist
Fahad Moti Khan more often than not got gifts he’d rather not have. He used to tolerate but the itch to do something to change this got irrepressible when he got a pink satin shirt with a pink satin tie. That is when the water brimmed over the glass and he started brainstorming about ways in which this can be changed.
Fahad bounced off a few ideas with his close friend Vishal Goyal who has around two decades of experience in the prepaid card space. And this brainstorming session led to Bitgifting- a collaborative gifting platform. Bitgifting allows one to create an event (Birthday, anniversary, etc.) for which people can contribute an amount. Friends can get together online and collect an amount at the end of which the recipient will get a VISA card for the same amount. This can be redeemed anywhere a VISA card is accepted- The recipient can book travel, pay their bills, visit restaurants, download a song, recharge their mobile phone or do whatever else they intend to with their card. The personalized VISA gift card can be a virtual as well as physical.
Joining Fahad in this startup, is a very strong core team. Apart from Vishal, who is the principal advisor, Bitgifting has Dennis Matthew as the COO and Anup Mishra as the Product Head. The total team size is 12 and Bitgifting is based out of New Delhi.
Completely bootstrapped from the capital generated by Fahad’s previous entrepreneurial venture T9L, Bitgifting is also on the lookout for funds. Fahad mentions that additional capital would primarily be required for advertising as Bitgifting is a B2C product. Not restricting themselves completely, the team has also opened up a B2B stream with HR departments of corporates where the platform can be used for peer to peer gifting.
India has a US$ 30 billion gift market (more support for the market here) and there have been a lot of startups that have tried entering the space but the VISA card concept is new. Globally as well, BitGifting doesn’t have counterparts and this will enable them to scale their platform with lesser friction. Due to RBI regulations, only Indians can participate currently but the platform can be replicated for other countries. The maximum amount that can be gifted in India currently is INR 20,000.
Having conducted a successful Beta since December 2012, over 300 events have been created since launch and 56% of the users are return visitors. The traction has largely been organic and now is the time when Bitgifting will be investing in marketing.
Website: Bitgifting
