Fintech startup POP aims to be among top 10 UPI apps by year-end

While ecommerce space is slowly maturing in India, there are many entrepreneurs who are coming up with new ideas, integrating payments and ecommerce spaces. POP is one such fintech startup founded by a team of former Flipkart employees. The company provides discount in the form of POP Coins to buyers when they purchase something from their platforms using UPI. In a conversation with the Bizz Buzz, company’s Founder, Bhargav Errangi said the company has achieved a monthly run rate of one million transactions within the second month of its launch. With an impressive growth rate of 100 per cent month-on-month, the company’s ambition is to be among the top 10 UPI apps by the end of this year. Already more than 400 brands are live in its platform and the company is aiming to have 1,000 brands by the end of this year. The company is enabling new D2C brands to sell their products in its platforms as new age buyers prefer such brands. It also has several established brands, driving traffic to its platform

Can you give a brief overview about your company? What is the motivation behind starting POP?

I am originally from Nellore, Andhra Pradesh. I went to Hyderabad for my Class 11 and 12. After that I went to the USA for my under graduate. I completed my PHD in neuro science. I spent eight years in Atlanta and after that I got a campus placement in a very good company in Silicon Valley, Intuit. I switched gears and become a product engineer in the financial world. I learnt a lot in my first job. In 2015, I wanted to start something in the consumer space. I moved back to India in 2015 and built a company called Spoyl. It is now a brand in Flipkart but I built the company and ran the company for five years. We were building social commerce vision for India. We were leveraging influencers and content to bring young people to ecommerce. We had seen a lot of highs and lows during this period. In the pandemic, we saw some pitfalls. We realised that it could be built better in a large company. At that point of time, Flipkart came, which first invested in the company and then acquired the company (Spoyl). So, I joined Flipkart in 2020 and spent almost three years with them. I was the business head of Shopsy, which is an early price point commerce platform. It is called as value commerce now. I kind of coined the term to build the business to build the team. It’s like a startup within a large company. Shopsy is a large business now with a billion dollar GMV. Post Shopsy, I was trying to build something and looking at the spaces. You know, you are once an entrepreneur means you always remain an entrepreneur.

Being in Indian ecommerce for a decade, I understand that next 10 year of ecommerce will be very different from last 10 years. With such young people, the ecommerce space is going to change. These people are very social media savvy, and very discerning in nature. Aspiration drives them a lot. In my view, big ecommerce platforms are built for a different generation. Kids don’t want to shop where their parents have shopped. A lot of people live in the tier-II and III cities. This is huge in number. The bulk of the ecommerce will come from small cities. That is the reason that we build something, which is like a habit, build on UPI and incentivise that behaviour. We have POPcoins, which provide rewards for the purchase. We have got the license from NPCI to be a Third Party Application Provider. We got it six-seven months back. We launched the platform in June first week and it is growing incredibly faster. We have more than 12,000 users with doing more than 25,000 transactions each day through UPI. We have already achieved a monthly run rate of one million transactions within the second month of its launch. We are leveraging the reach of UPI to attract a decent number of audiences to come to our app. It’s kind of India’s first payment to commerce platform. It’s the first time that payments are being used to drive ecommerce.

Is the reward through POPCoins guaranteed? Can you throw some light on this aspect?

It’s like a shopping currency. If you buy Rs 1,000 worth goods, we give you 2 per cent back in the form of POP Coins. These 20 POP Coins are equal to Rs 20 worth of extra discount. It is a discount currency and pretty much guaranteed.

Are these reward points applicable across all the brands that are available on your platform?

Yes, it is across all the brands that are available on our platform. We have close to 400 brands, which are already live on the platform. We are growing this as we speak. We will be touching the 1,000 brands mark by the end of this year. Most of these brands are in the D2C (Direct to Consumer) side. As I have said, we want to enable these merchants. We have known brands that are sitting on the top. We also have known names and new names also in the platform.

Who bears the cost of the discount that is offered through the POP Coins? Is it the brand?

The way we operate is that we charge a commission to the brand as we are a market place. That varies from 10-25 per cent, depending on the brand. That money is at our disposal. What happens is we take that money from the brand and position the POP Coins’ discount from the P&L (profit & loss) standpoint. If there is 20 rupees commission on a 100 rupees product. We give the discount from our 20 rupees commission.

So, it is not a heavy cash burn model. Is it the right understanding?

No, it is not a cash burn model. It is a very effective way of building a payments business. The gravitation towards buying new brands among young population is high. That is the reason that many D2C brands are selling billion dollar worth products every year.

Acquisition and retention have already been a challenge in D2C brands. What is your experience?

Many D2C brands are doing billion dollar worth of sales. Because, buyers’ trust on these brands have increased. Otherwise, they will not able to sale so much.

Can you throw some light on the co-branded credit card that you have come up with?

We have launched one co-branded credit card in association with the Yes Bank. The card is already live. The value back is more in case of credit cards usage.

Are you adequately funded now? Can you give some idea about the founding team?

Yes, I am the founder and we have a founding team, who were all working with Flipkart. We have now come a long way. We have raised $2.4 million of seed funding. The next raise is at least 6-8 months away, when we may raise a series A funding. We are around 40 people team now.