Pratap TP, CMO of Qwikcilver has been interviewed on the show by Kavita Thapliyal. The interview outlines the gifting culture in India and how Qwikcilver has given a twist to this in the form of gift cards. It further highlights how Qwikcilver’s technology has provided the much needed impetus to the gift cards industry in India.
Qwikcilver is the single largest service provider in the prepaid space. Bengaluru-based Qwikcilver aims to manage gift card transactions worth $4 billion in the next two years. The start-up has a 90% market share in the gift card segement, the firm’s co-founder Pratap T. P. said in an interview. “We are looking at $4 billion of throughput (for gift cards) being managed,” said Mr. Pratap, 47-year-old co-founder and director of Qwikcilver. “We are not saying that we have invented gifting. It is the oldest hobby in Indian mythology. But we are packaging gifting fundamentally to the new age Indian consumer.” The gifting industry in India is estimated to be worth about $40 billion and about 2% of it comprises the ‘gift card’ category. This is an opportunity that new-age firms may not have tapped so far.
The video highlights Kumar and Pratap’s entrepreneurial journey – the idea behind starting Qwikcilver to the inception and growth of Woohoo.in (Qwikcilver’s e-commerce platform that houses and offers gift cards from the country’s leading brands) and the Woohoo gifting app. Besides sharing the details of their journey and acknowledging the role of the tremendous support they received from their family and friends in helping them build Qwikcilver to what it is today, Kumar and Pratap also share details of the complex yet sophisticated and seamless technology that they use to power and support the extensive and varied gift card programmes of partner companies (big players spanning across both the offline and online world). The duo also provide some insights into the the adoption of the gift cards in tier 2 and tier 3 cities, the revenue models for B2B and B2C businesses and the plans of expansion in the coming years.