"By 2018, the App plans to have presence in 25 cities in India."

Incepted in July 2014, Crown-it is an innovative restaurant retail cash-back App, which offers interesting dining options with unique cash-back schemes. The cash-back to customers for their retail spend is compensated with interesting offers such as free talktime, online shopping, movie tickets, donations to charity etc. The idea mainly caters to give a customer an innovative restaurant experience teamed up with unique cash-back services.

Retailer caught up with Sameer Grover, CEO and Founder, Crown-It, who is in active discussion of raising Series-A funding to help Crown-It expand to four major cities this year.

When did the start-up, Crown-It commence?

Crown-it was launched in July-2014. The product Crown-it is owned by GoldVIP Technology Solutions Pvt Ltd. GoldVIP is committed to create mobile marketing solutions for small to medium retailers in India to help them grow their busines​s​es. It is available on both Android and iPhone.

What exactly is this App all about?

Crown-It is a cash-back App which targets Indian middle class consumers. We give cash-back on customers’ discretionary spending on lifestyle businesses like restaurants, bars, cafes, salons, spas etc. Customers use the cash-back for online shopping, movie tickets and paying phone bills.

The App charges local merchants a marketing fee for sending customers to the merchants through the app and we share part of the marketing fee with the customers as cash-back. Crown-It App is created for the mobile-first Indian society and aiming the Indian middle class which is growing to 200 million with a large discretionary spend capacity.

What kind of Cash-back can users avail?

Cash-back is in the form of Crowns. They can redeem these Crowns for online shopping at sites like Jabong, Flipkart and Amazon etc, and buy movie vouchers from BookMyShow, pay postpaid phone bills and recharge/talktime.

How do you see the future years panning out?

In the next three-to-four years, we will target retail stores in India across multiple categories like restaurants, bars, groceries, salons, among others. By 2018, we plan to have presence across 25 cities in India with over 2 crore members, and drive a GMV of Rs.600 crore monthly across all categories.

Can this App be used in other segments apart from food/restaurant segment?

Currently, the app works at restaurants, bars and cafes.

How attractive is food segment for future growth of this App?

There is a massive opportunity in the Food & Beverage segment, where currently no other business is providing deals and offers as friction-less and fluid as Crown-It. The response has been overwhelming so far and we expect it to only get better.

What made you decide to venture out with an App for food industry?

Even though there were other businesses working in this space, the deals provided to users somehow were just difficult to avail or did not seem attractive enough. That’s why we came up with the idea of providing customers with simple, meaningful, and friction-less offers. Besides, it is a huge opportunity for small and medium businesses in the F&B industry to market themselves to a consolidated base of audience that is exactly looking for their services.

Which restaurants are your clients that agreed to be part of this scheme? Are this tie-up with branded restaurants local or national?

We have over 2500 restaurants and bars on our App so far, including a lot of local, national and international brand names. We have local restaurants as well as big QSR chains giving cash-back to the users. Some of the most valuable clients that we have include Howzzat Sports Bar, Striker, Raasta, Moets, Zambar, Moti Mahal, Giani’s, Subway, Fat Lulu’s, Yo China, Smokeys, Subway, Chicago Pizza, Biryani Paradise to name a few. Besides, we have almost all the best Pubs and Microbreweries in Delhi and Gurgaon on the App.

How much downloads have been done till now?

Around  90,000 plus. We’re just about to cross the 1 lakh user mark.                           

Stay on top – Get the daily news from Indian Retailer in your inbox
Also Worth Reading