Magicpin, an India-based company that combines elements of Foursquare with offline-to-online services, has closed a $7 million Series B round. The money comes from existing backers Lightspeed India Partners, Westbridge and undisclosed overseas investors, and it takes the startup past $10 million raised to date.
The two-year-old company was founded by former Lightspeed investor Anshoo Sharma (CEO) and ex-Nexus Venture Partners investor Brij Bhushan (COO) who met while working at Bain. The idea is to build a bridge to let consumers find places to go and things to do, while giving merchants a window into reaching potential customers through the internet.
Magicpin, which spent time with Google’s Launchpad program last year, serves up deals and discounts in and around the location of consumers in the style of Foursquare but with a focus on images and multimedia. Merchants, meanwhile, pay a subscription fee to get on the platform and then hand over 12-15 percent of all revenue that is driven by Magicpin.
“The largest market that exists is the retail market and in India it’s a trillion…