With 150K users F&B customer engagement startup Twyst secures angel funding from group of angels

Gurgaon based F&B customer engagement startup Twyst has raised an undisclosed amount from a group of angel investors, comprising Rohit Bhatia (Partner at Taplow Executive Search and ex-CEO, Dhingana), Sunil Nikhar (serial entrepreneur and investor, CEO of Digilant Solutions), Vaibhav Domkundwar (Founder & CEO, Better), Siddharth Nautiyal (formerly with Bessemer Ventures), and others.

The company’s platform allows retailers to create powerful and yet flexible marketing programs to improve customer loyalty. For users it gives personalized and relevant recommendations about outlets and rewards them at frequently visited F&B outlets.

Twyst plans to use the funding to consolidate its position and expand the offering beyond a customer engagement platform. Currently, Twyst works with 300 plus F&B brands across Delhi NCR.

The brainchild of Abhimanyu Lal (ex eBay marketing head), Rahul Chakraborti (ex Head Business Operations India & SEA, Yahoo) and Arun Rajappa ( Principal Program Manager, Microsoft) -- Twyst enables merchants to set up flexible and powerful user targeted offers to drive their marketing objectives.

Abhimanyu, Co-Founder & CEO, Twyst, said,

We have seen great value delivered to both users and merchants with the current offering. We are working to significantly expand the product and our field of play, and will roll out the new Twyst.in a few weeks.

Following the launch, Twyst plans to aggressively expand the customer base and geographic spread.

At present, the company has about 150K users with 45 per cent repeat buyers. With its current rate company claims to capture a GMV of INR 50 CR by the end of this calendar year. Besides web the startup also has app for Android as well as iOS platforms.

YourStory’s take

The company broadly competes with Crownit, Ftcash, Paymango and Clozerr along with deal offering websites like Groupon, Mydala and Coupondunia. Rewarding and cash back space is going through second wind following the rising trend of hyperlocal commerce in India.

According to a rough industry estimate, the current market opportunity of enabling technology to hyperlocal commerce is about $16 billion and expected to grow to $80 billion by 2020.

Besides product focused hyperlocal plays, reward and cashback segment is touted as one of the biggest opportunity and it would be interesting to see how mobile focused reward space will evolve in future.

Website