Hyperlocal discovery and rewards platform magicpin has raised $ 7 million from Samsung Venture Investment Corporation (SVIC) and its existing investors including Lightspeed and Waterbridge Ventures. This fund-raising is part of the company’s ongoing Series-D round.

magicpin forayed into delivery services in April, has also now rolled-out its whitelabel technology solutions for offline retailers and restaurants to enable them to service online orders on their own. The company’s move to offer technology solutions comes at a time when restaurant owners are banking on online orders for revenues in a significant manner, as footfalls for dining services have been adversely impacted due to the pandemic.

Founded in 2015 by Anshoo Sharma and Brij Bhushan to drive discovery for offline retail, magicpin enables consumers to save on their retail spending across food, fashion, beauty, grocery, and pharmacies, and provides a marketing solution to large/small retailers as well as manufacturing brands.

"The investment from Samsung Venture Investment Corporation will be used in our operations across cities, markets, categories, and for developing online products like magicStore," said Anshu Sharma Co-Founder & CEO, magicpin.

The company said, in addition to the traditional catalog-based ordering system, magicStore will offer an AI-powered list-based ordering system, which will be similar to how customers order from grocery or pharmacy stores over phone or WhatsApp. The order is then delivered by the retailer’s staff or magicpin enables delivery to the customer through its 3PL delivery partners.

The company also rewards consumers in the form of cashbacks or points for visiting and spending on outlets that are listed on its platform or some of the branded outlets.

The startup claims to have scaled up to $1 billion+ of GMV across 500K unique retailers in India. Other than small retailers, magicpin also drives discovery and business for large retailers like Lifestyle, Westside, Shoppers Stop, Levi’s, Wrangler, etc, as well as manufacturing brands like P&G, Tata Global, PepsiCo, Diageo, Godrej, and ITC.

 “The latest funding is a strong validation of our business model and puts us in a strong position to pursue our strategies. This fundraising is part of our ongoing Series-D round which we will close once we see revival in the market.  The capital will be used to grow our existing business and for new product development,” said Sharma.

Talking about the company’s move to begin offering technology solutions to help digitise offline retailers and restaurants, Sharma said, “Our core business focusses on connecting users with offline retailers. As the pandemic hit the country, we ventured into delivery services in April, and now we have rolled out our technology solutions for offline retailers to enable home ordering themselves at zero commissions. We are giving the complete technology stack for ordering, payments and fulfilment.”

The company expects to see strong demand for its technology solution offering from restaurant owners, grocery store owners, pharmacies, stationary store owners as well as fashion retailers in the coming days. Last year the restaurant industry had raised serious concerns regarding high commissions charged by some of the hyperlocal food delivery platforms and the company expects to see strong traction from the restaurant industry with its zero commission strategy.