Location-based shopping app ShopsUps raises seed funding

ShopsUp, a location-based shopping app, announced a Seed funding of about $963K (INR 6.6 Cr) from Anand Sankeshwar, managing director at VRL Logistics and Yang Shu, CEO of Taojinjia. The startup is founded in 2015 by Suhas Gopinath and Anmol Vij.

ShopsUp is pioneering its ability to reach young Indian millennial consumers with smartphone and influence their behavior while shopping and discovering stores. India is second largest smartphone market in world in terms of users and increasingly consumers are turning to mobile to discover and research fashion trends and discover exciting consumer items . ShopsUp will utilize mobile as a platform to provide brand and retail partners with complete visibility into a consumer’s decision and incentivize the shopper journey from discovery to sale, with visibility and metrics that justifies consumer awareness, brand and product engagement, unit sales, and ROI.

ShopsUp aims to bridge the gap between offline and online shopping behavior with the help of its technology and drive more footfalls for its retail partners by offering shots (rewards) for activities like walk-ins at retail partners, shopping at retail partners. The shots can be instantly redeemed for a free movie ticket, cab ride, spa, gift vouchers and more. ShopsUp has partnered with Uber for exclusive offers for users to take rides for their shopping runs.

“Indian millennials want to be rewarded for their window shopping as well as actual shopping behavior and marketers want to capture these moments as and when they happen. ShopsUp’s innovative technology and use of analytics allows us to partner with top brands and local boutiques and provide them with customized solutions that dramatically differ from existing options available for retailers,” said Suhas Gopinath, Co-founder and CEO at ShopsUp. “We believe that the right offers delivered in the right context and right place can drive business for both organized as well as local retail establishments, and we are investing in analytics to offer best of the breed solutions to our partners,” further added Gopinath.