ET BureauBy Jyoti Pande Lavakare
Some weeks ago, I overheard two of my girlfriends discussing the merits and challenges of credit card points. One of them had recently been able to buy a return ticket from Delhi to Doha on one of her privilege credit cards without paying a single rupee. “How did you manage that?
I’ve been using my card for everything, including payment of all bills for utilities, but I won’t even be able to get a ticket from Delhi to Faridabad anytime soon,” my other friend complained, as they tried to compare payments, spending and other deals on the multiple credit, debit and loyalty cards they owned between the two of them.
Play the Cards Right
For those of us who aren’t savvy enough to unlock the hidden value our cards hold — like free lounge access, upgrades to business class, access to emerald golf courses, free iPods — we now have an app that can do this for us. It’s called Cardback, a predictive Android app that alerts users about which of their credit, debit or loyalty cards will give them the best deal, the maximum bang for the buck for a specific payment, based on their card options and current location. The app, a location-aware mobile platform that helps people save money and spend wisely, has been downloaded 30,000 times. And this when it is available only in the Android version. “Our iOS and Windows versions, upgraded with improved functionalities, will be available for download before Diwali,” says Nikhil Wason, co-founder of Orangut Labs, whose flagship product is Cardback. His company currently has six employees, including the other cofounder Nidhi Gurnani.
Most people who use cards to pay for goods and services carry multiple credit, debit, prepaid and loyalty cards but rarely use them “smartly”. So, they end up spending more than they should have or lose out on earning money in the form of cashback, reward points, interest rates or other deals, says Wason. “Cardback helps people decide on which card to use before making a payment so that they get the maximum benefit out of a transaction.”
Here’s how it works: the user has to enter basic card details, like name of the issuing bank, type of card. The app then fetches the best deals available on cards at standard outlet chains located close by. But here’s the best part: The app doesn’t take any card numbers or sensitive information, and doesn’t enable any money flow through its system, which makes it very secure.
Cardback is currently supported in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore — urban centres with maximum card penetration — but the team plans to launch in Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune in the next quarter, following which it will expand to Chandigarh, Ahmedabad and Kolkata.
The developers have added a comparative dimension to the app. “If you let the app know how much you need to pay and where, it will take less than five seconds to let you know which of your existing cards you should use to complete that transaction. It is like giving Google maps your start and end-point destination and the app finding you the best route,” says Wason. Cardback can also help users optimize their credit cycle, so that their interest payout is minimized.
Betting Big
Wason is betting that Cardback will become an essential app for every smartphone user. He’s also betting on two other statistics — the exponential growth of online e-commerce, especially in smaller cities, and the surge in growth of debit cards. Isn’t he focusing only on a small segment of the economy — the urban card user who is part of India’s white-money economy? “All that will change. It already has,” he says with the typical confidence of a young entrepreneur. “In fact, RBI statistics show that while there are 20 million credit cards, there are 400 million debit cards and increasing at the rate of around 12% per quarter. That is a huge potential,” Wason says.
He is equally upbeat about the traction his app is likely to get from the growth in e-commerce in tier-2 and tier-3 cities. Even with the cash on delivery option that people may use, once they realize that they can get a better deal by using a card, they are likely to switch. “Our app will gain traction not just from the growing penetration of cashless payments but also from the growth in online buying. Our research shows that customers in smaller towns that have fewer malls buy the most online,” he says. Wason isn’t limiting himself to India — he wants his app to be the go-to app globally. “This is a global product,” he says.
“We can take it anywhere.” But what about the prospect of me-too apps mushrooming? “Once our users download the app and train it by providing the basic information, they get vested in this. The more information they provide, the more accurate it gets. Subsequently, there will be an inertia to move elsewhere,” reckons Wason. “Besides, it isn’t so easy to replicate our domain expertise and technology.” And the revenue model? “We haven’t got there yet,” he says with remarkable insouciance.
“Right now, we’re not generating any revenue. We’re only focussing on getting more users and ensuring they get value. We want to ensure that Cardback becomes the de facto place to go to for anyone making any cashless transaction.” Press him further and he says mysteriously, “I expect to generate revenues by the second half of 2015.”
More on the Cards
Investors seem to be validating Cardback by putting their money where their mouth is. Cardback just received $170,000 from a consortium of angel investors through LetsVenture, an online platform that connects ‘angels’ with start-ups.
Among the investors are Google’s Rajan Anandan, Sunil Kalra, Rishi Srivastava, Alok Mittal and other well-known ‘angels’. For the six employees, this is money they will be using for expansion, product enhancement and user traction. So far, the company supports more than 500 credit and debit cards across the top 10 banks in India, covering categories like fuel, dining, shopping, utilities, spas, hospitals, travel, e-commerce and movies. With the fresh infusion of funds, it’s anybody’s guess how much further, wider and deeper they will go
Some weeks ago, I overheard two of my girlfriends discussing the merits and challenges of credit card points. One of them had recently been able to buy a return ticket from Delhi to Doha on one of her privilege credit cards without paying a single rupee. “How did you manage that?
I’ve been using my card for everything, including payment of all bills for utilities, but I won’t even be able to get a ticket from Delhi to Faridabad anytime soon,” my other friend complained, as they tried to compare payments, spending and other deals on the multiple credit, debit and loyalty cards they owned between the two of them.
Play the Cards Right
For those of us who aren’t savvy enough to unlock the hidden value our cards hold — like free lounge access, upgrades to business class, access to emerald golf courses, free iPods — we now have an app that can do this for us. It’s called Cardback, a predictive Android app that alerts users about which of their credit, debit or loyalty cards will give them the best deal, the maximum bang for the buck for a specific payment, based on their card options and current location. The app, a location-aware mobile platform that helps people save money and spend wisely, has been downloaded 30,000 times. And this when it is available only in the Android version. “Our iOS and Windows versions, upgraded with improved functionalities, will be available for download before Diwali,” says Nikhil Wason, co-founder of Orangut Labs, whose flagship product is Cardback. His company currently has six employees, including the other cofounder Nidhi Gurnani.
Most people who use cards to pay for goods and services carry multiple credit, debit, prepaid and loyalty cards but rarely use them “smartly”. So, they end up spending more than they should have or lose out on earning money in the form of cashback, reward points, interest rates or other deals, says Wason. “Cardback helps people decide on which card to use before making a payment so that they get the maximum benefit out of a transaction.”
Here’s how it works: the user has to enter basic card details, like name of the issuing bank, type of card. The app then fetches the best deals available on cards at standard outlet chains located close by. But here’s the best part: The app doesn’t take any card numbers or sensitive information, and doesn’t enable any money flow through its system, which makes it very secure.
Cardback is currently supported in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore — urban centres with maximum card penetration — but the team plans to launch in Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune in the next quarter, following which it will expand to Chandigarh, Ahmedabad and Kolkata.
The developers have added a comparative dimension to the app. “If you let the app know how much you need to pay and where, it will take less than five seconds to let you know which of your existing cards you should use to complete that transaction. It is like giving Google maps your start and end-point destination and the app finding you the best route,” says Wason. Cardback can also help users optimize their credit cycle, so that their interest payout is minimized.
Wason is betting that Cardback will become an essential app for every smartphone user. He’s also betting on two other statistics — the exponential growth of online e-commerce, especially in smaller cities, and the surge in growth of debit cards. Isn’t he focusing only on a small segment of the economy — the urban card user who is part of India’s white-money economy? “All that will change. It already has,” he says with the typical confidence of a young entrepreneur. “In fact, RBI statistics show that while there are 20 million credit cards, there are 400 million debit cards and increasing at the rate of around 12% per quarter. That is a huge potential,” Wason says.
He is equally upbeat about the traction his app is likely to get from the growth in e-commerce in tier-2 and tier-3 cities. Even with the cash on delivery option that people may use, once they realize that they can get a better deal by using a card, they are likely to switch. “Our app will gain traction not just from the growing penetration of cashless payments but also from the growth in online buying. Our research shows that customers in smaller towns that have fewer malls buy the most online,” he says. Wason isn’t limiting himself to India — he wants his app to be the go-to app globally. “This is a global product,” he says.
“We can take it anywhere.” But what about the prospect of me-too apps mushrooming? “Once our users download the app and train it by providing the basic information, they get vested in this. The more information they provide, the more accurate it gets. Subsequently, there will be an inertia to move elsewhere,” reckons Wason. “Besides, it isn’t so easy to replicate our domain expertise and technology.” And the revenue model? “We haven’t got there yet,” he says with remarkable insouciance.
“Right now, we’re not generating any revenue. We’re only focussing on getting more users and ensuring they get value. We want to ensure that Cardback becomes the de facto place to go to for anyone making any cashless transaction.” Press him further and he says mysteriously, “I expect to generate revenues by the second half of 2015.”
More on the Cards
Investors seem to be validating Cardback by putting their money where their mouth is. Cardback just received $170,000 from a consortium of angel investors through LetsVenture, an online platform that connects ‘angels’ with start-ups.
Among the investors are Google’s Rajan Anandan, Sunil Kalra, Rishi Srivastava, Alok Mittal and other well-known ‘angels’. For the six employees, this is money they will be using for expansion, product enhancement and user traction. So far, the company supports more than 500 credit and debit cards across the top 10 banks in India, covering categories like fuel, dining, shopping, utilities, spas, hospitals, travel, e-commerce and movies. With the fresh infusion of funds, it’s anybody’s guess how much further, wider and deeper they will go
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