Enhance your dining experience with the Binge App
Born out of a chance weekend meeting between old college buddies, Binge pitches itself as a dining experience enhancer with an attached personal wallet. The app set about to solve the common issue of waiting for your bill after a meal or drink, checking to see if everything adds up correctly and then paying via cash or card – which is a problem sometimes compounded if the tab is being split between diners.
Though conceptualised two years ago, the app was launched only last February. Given that a couple of the founders were already from a hospitality background, they leveraged this experience while working on the product.
Santosh Martin one of the founders says:
The last and final differentiator for us is that we are a payment platform right, as a user I can use any of my assets that I want to pay with, so it could be anything credit card, debit card, net banking, we have just integrated with Paytm, so you also have a mobile prepaid wallet so we will do that with Mobikwik, so none of these are competition to us.
The founders are cautious about the growth and prefer to take a slow and steady path to success. Since its launch, Binge has created an active user base of 14,000 people and has tied up with about 120 restaurants in Bengaluru alone.
The founders intend to expand to the Mumbai and Delhi markets by the end of this year as many of their partners have a huge presence in these two cities.
The company recently partnered with Reservation Diary to manage the reservation system. However, Binge has no plans of looking at another acquisition in the near future.The six member in house technology team at Binge manages all the new modules that are being added to the app and they have recently added the reservation feature and soon want to get into feedback management as well.
There are a number of Mobile apps in the market trying to solve payment related problems. Binge is trying to carve a niche for itself by looking only at the hospitality sector. However, the success and sustenance of the app will depend on the user experience of the technology itself and the degree of its success in expanding to other markets.
Video Credits:
Cameraman: Rukmangada Raja / Editor: Anjali Achal