Taggle Receives $ 8.75 Million From Greylock And Battery Ventures

Taggle Internet Ventures Pvt. Ltd which will recently launch an online group buying platform, taggle.com, adding to the list of the string of such platforms being launched on the web, has recently managed to garner $ 8.75 Million from Greylock Partners and Battery Ventures.

The basic business model of a group buying platform is that the service provider puts up a discount deal from any business it has partnered with on its website. Users of the platform can then vote for the particular deal if they think they will be interested in it. If a sufficient number of people vote for the deal, then the discount coupons are offered to all those who voted for the deal.

This concept has become hugely popular in the US (groupon.com being the most popular platform). It has lately become one of the most popular trends in India to open these platforms wherein some platforms have even gone to the extent of copying the format of the groupon website. WATBlog recently covered the launch of DealsandYou.com, a similar platform.

Taggle intends to use the investment to scale up its services and enhance its technology and marketing sections to bring in quality deals. The company has inducted Venkat Panchapakesan, former CEO at Yahoo! India R&D, on its board. Moreover the investing companies have not only added monetary resources to the company but are going to get involved with the company in more ways. Arvin Babu of Greylock Partners and Ramneek Gupta of Battery Ventures are also joining the board of Taggle.

Post investment Taggle prepaid will allow consumers to deposit cash with the platform so that they do not have to directly deal with the payment gateway and the company will offer them 2% bonus on the amount deposited under this scheme. It will also start a contact center where the users will be able to pay vendors simply by calling the center and using their credit cards.

It will use new ways of marketing by using SMS and use security hologram based coupons to prevent fraud.Many analysts feel that Taggle’s team of founders holds promise and therefore may set it apart from various such platforms already existing in the Indian scenario in the future.

The group buying platforms will have to realize that simply picking up the model from successful platforms in the US is not going to help them repeat the success story in India. They will have to come up with innovations and ideas specific to the Indian consumer’s mindset. This is the most important factor that will ensure their survival. What do you think?