Magicpin announces Series A investment of up to $3 million from Lightspeed

By Taslima Khan

NEW DELHI: Gurgaon-based startup Magicpin announced Series A investment of up to $3 million from Delhi-based early stage venture firm Lightspeed Venture Partners.

The firm was being incubated at Lightspeed since May last year, people aware of the matter said.

Magicpin creates online communities of users and merchants that drive and visually capture the local buzz, activities and transactions. While it helps the community discover trending events and in teresting people in their locality, gaining followers and likes in the process, Magicpin serves as a visual referral network and a tool for new customer acquisition and customer engagement.

“Offline retail is a market that is 100x the size of ecommerce in India and constitutes millions of merchants providing services like restaurants, fashion, spa, beauty, yoga, sports, gym, etc.,“ said Anshoo Sharma, CEO of Magic Pin, who recently quit as principal at Lightspeed. “This market is ripe to get disrupted as internet users in India move towards 600 million by 2018.“ Magicpin chief operating officer Brij Bhushan used to be at Mumbai-based Nexus Venture Partners. The duo had previously worked together at consulting firm Bain & Co.

“Opportunities in the hyper-local space are huge,“ said Bejul Somaiyya, managing director, Lightspeed.