MPaani raises US$ 1.35 million in IDG Ventures-led funding round

New Delhi: MPaani Solutions Pvt. Ltd, a consumer and retailer data analytics start-up, on Thursday said it has raised $1.35 million in a pre-series A round led by IDG Ventures.

Existing investors Blume Ventures and Saha Fund also participated in the round.

m.Paani was founded in 2014 by Akanksha Hazari. In April last year, it raised an undisclosed seed round from Blume Ventures and angel investors including Adil Allana of The Allana Group, Taxiforsure co-founder Aprameya Radhakrishna and serial investor Gautam Ivatury.

The Mumbai-based start-up will deploy the capital for scaling technology and data science functions, besides investing in marketing and sales efforts across the country.

m.Paani offers loyalty programmes to consumers and retailers, and delivers the data generated through these channels to companies and brands for market intelligence. The solutions are offered through a Saas-based platform to companies which in turn, roll out the loyalty programmes to their retail partners and mass consumers.

Both consumer and retailer loyalty programmes are managed through m.Paani mobile app. Its customer facing application allows buyers to earn reward points, while for retailers, m.Paani serves as a customer management tool that helps them run dedicated marketing campaigns and loyalty programmes.

Through its applications, m.Paani gathers demographic, transactional and psychographic data about the consumers, and business profile, transactional history and business territory data of the retail partner. This is then used by companies to conduct market research and analytics.

“Seventy percent of India’s consumers historically have been outside the formal economy, with limited information available regarding their consumption needs and purchase patterns. m.Paani’s platform brings these consumers into the digital world, and allows brands to understand and engage these customers via data science insights,” Sanat Rao of IDG Ventures said in a statement.

According to Hazari, m.Paani has created a technology pipeline, which through its retailer loyalty solutions and the consumer loyalty programme constantly feeds data back to the company.

The company currently has three clients, one each in pharmaceuticals, packaged consumer goods and payment services verticals. Hazari said its clients use m.Paani to gain insights into its consumers and improve their stickiness.

m.Paani, which operates out of Mumbai, is looking to expand to Pune, Bengaluru and NCR this year.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.