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Man behind India's third-largest food app after Zomato and Swiggy. 1. Anshoo Sharma had everything one could dream of—a computer science degree from IIT Delhi, an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, and a coveted consulting job at Bain and Company. But he still wanted to do something for startups. And then an opportunity arrived. 👇 2. In 2009, he joined the venture capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners as their second employee in India. He led and supported nine startups' investments. One of those experiences involved a significant problem in the retail space, and he wanted to solve it. 🙌 3. Due to limited digital tools, local merchants struggled to attract and retain customers. He wanted to build a platform where offline merchants could connect with customers using a rewards-based model. After six years, he left his job to start his own company. In August 2015, Magicpin was born. 🚀 4. The idea was simple ⏩ Customers could upload purchase bills to earn 'Magicpin points,' discounts redeemable at various merchants, making it a win-win situation for both. But the model had too many problems - Tech adoption by retailers, fake bills, and the biggest: Would retailers even pay for such a service? 🤔 5. Anshoo gave retailers access to receipts, which served as concrete proof of the revenue produced by its platform. It also deepened its relationship with retailers and became a social media for users with trending events and local people discovery. And magic happened. 🪄 6. Within just a year, Magicpin grew 7x to scale to a transaction volume of 256 CR with over 30,000 merchants and 1 million users who posted their bills over 5 million times and spent 30 minutes on the app daily. As it expanded to restaurants, salons, and spas, it raised 42 CR from Lightspeed and Vy Capital. 💰 7. Magicpin started working with merchants like McDonald's and Taco Bell. By giving the point of sale to the customer rather than the retailer, it scaled faster than its competitors to 15 million users, 800,000 merchants, and Rs 200 crore monthly transactions. In 2018, it raised 130 CR in Series C funding. 💸 8. Even COVID-19 could not stop them as Magicpin pivoted to a 45-minute nationwide pharmacy delivery in 50 cities. It partnered with 1 million merchants and processed more than 300,000 transactions daily at a revenue of 223 CR, which attracted the giant. On 10th November 2021, Zomato invested 446 CR at a valuation of 2423 CR. 🙌 9. Today, Magicpin is India's largest discovery platform for offline retail, with a processed transaction size worth 8000 CR. With over 150,000 food orders daily through ONDC, it has become India's third-largest food delivery app after Zomato and Swiggy. 💪 ➡️ Anshoo Sharma left his high-paying investor job to build a 2500 CR company for offline merchants in Bharat. He definitely has the Magic - pin. 🔮