“𝑾𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒑𝒊𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝑴𝒓. 𝑹𝒂𝒕𝒂𝒏 𝑻𝒂𝒕𝒂, 𝑰 𝒂𝒔𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌𝒔 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒃𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔. 𝑯𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒂𝒗𝒆, 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒚. 𝑨 𝒇𝒆𝒘 𝒅𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝑰 𝒈𝒐𝒕 𝒂 𝒑𝒉𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝑴𝒓. 𝑹𝒂𝒕𝒂𝒏 𝑻𝒂𝒕𝒂'𝒔 𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒎, 𝒔𝒂𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒊𝒏𝒗𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒃𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔, 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒋𝒐𝒚𝒆𝒅.”
Meet Swati Bhargava, co-founder of CashKaro.com, India’s leading coupon and cashback app, and EarnKaro, an affiliate marketing platform. Today, CashKaro has over 18M downloads, is the only VC-backed Cashback site, and has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Kalaari Capital & Series B funding led by Korea Investment Partners. It drives more than $500 million in sales annually.
“𝑰𝒏 𝒄𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒔 10, 𝑰 𝒕𝒐𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑯𝒂𝒓𝒚𝒂𝒏𝒂, 𝑰 𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂 𝒔𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒂𝒓𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒕𝒖𝒅𝒚 𝒊𝒏 𝑺𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒂𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒆, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 25 𝒔𝒕𝒖𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝑰𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒂 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒈𝒐𝒕 𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒅”. Born and raised in a small town, Ambala, she got the opportunity to study in Singapore and later at The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and worked at Goldman Sachs for five years.
In our conversation with Swati, we dived deeper into her journey of transitioning from a high-paying job in the UK to building a business in India. She started a UK-based Cashback business - ‘Pouring Pounds Ltd ' along with her husband & co-founder, Rohan Bhargava. They expanded it and ventured into the Indian market.
“𝑨 𝒇𝒆𝒘 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒚 𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒔 𝒄𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒅 𝒘𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒑𝒖𝒕 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒚. 𝑰 𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒘𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 0 𝒕𝒐 $750,000 𝒊𝒏 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 48 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔”. Swati spoke about how they raised money with the help of their peers in 2014.
“𝑻𝒐𝒅𝒂𝒚 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒍𝒂𝒌𝒉𝒔 𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑬𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒌𝒂𝒓𝒐, 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒂 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒔 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅”. Swati explained how people are using Earnkaro to generate an extra income which is turning out to be more than their salaries.
Watch our full conversation with Swati, where she shared more of such stories, lessons, and experiences from her journey of building two successful startups. Youtube Video- https://youtu.be/AqejqppHcl0
#CashKaro #EarnKaro #startupsuccess #entrepreneurlife #businessjourney #financialfreedom #innovationinindia
[00:00:00] Thank you Swati for being on our show today.
[00:00:09] My pleasure.
[00:00:10] All about people, women especially who have wiped out and all and you clearly being one
[00:00:14] of those women who have not seen your largest cash back so you know tight and I have seen
[00:00:20] your Indian provider he said that people know me as that but my friend know me as a small to see my Nananani and you know we saw this advertisement in the newspaper Singapore L.I. in scholarship and my dad said hey do you want to apply for this and I was like I don't know if I can apply for this in a new school or not but then a part of me was like huh why am I saying no maybe I can actually get this maybe I can actually go so I just kind of gave it a shot and we applied
[00:01:40] for that scholarship I got into the next round and you know round out a round
[00:01:44] was clear there was IQ levels there deserve this award you know so I explained look I come from Ambala my father has an agricultural women's business and you know while we're all you know doing well but UK education is very expensive and I cannot my parents can't afford that education without scholarship so they gave me 80% scholarship and that is why I went I think if it was like 30 40 it would have still been hard to manage.
[00:03:03] And then how did this name pouring pounds come in? But we never really got into the consumer brand space. So we were building boring bounds as a B2B site, which would actually run cashback sites for other large partners. Like for Daily Mail newspaper, we were their partner. So we were running their cashback sites, setting it up, getting a service fee. But that's different compared to India. Maybe we are saying cash caro is a brand name.
[00:04:21] Can we make it a household name?
[00:04:23] So we thought we don't really wanna play only
[00:04:25] in that B2B space.
[00:04:26] We wanna do consumer. July every month, it has sent 300 million clicks to our partner sites for free because we only get paid if a transaction happens. So in Karoka basically business model and why we got into it was because social commerce in India was happening but wasn't really, there were a lot of issues with social commerce.
[00:05:40] So we just thought the main issue with social commerce product on the internet, that's a partner of Earn Karu, and put it on my network.
[00:07:04] And if anybody clicks on any actually, I think it's for me and you. Yeah. Because it's for, you know, normal people who may not have a group, but we all shop online
[00:08:20] a lot.
[00:08:21] Yeah.
[00:08:22] So if I'm shopping online, then what Cashkuro is saying is, if you have directly Amazon
[00:08:25] Flipkart, you can't do it.
[00:08:27] But if you have Cashkuro so good people should use it. But when you released your first round what was that for? So our first round was Angel round which was $750,000 in the UK and that time when we decided yeah so I emailed friends I emailed colleagues from Goldman seniors and I said that we're gonna expand
[00:09:41] pouring pounds to India we've launched actually we had already launched
[00:09:44] Kachkaro and that time, I used to call back saying,
[00:11:00] got 100k, got 50k, got this much.
[00:11:03] And I was like, Jyoti, we got to 750k.
[00:11:06] So that's why we wanted him on board. And then also, you know, his name adds a lot of credibility, which is true also. So when we got the Tata investment, after and the excitement was so much Kuch Bhi Khiladat it was fine. So we had that then our meeting with him inside the room long table he's sitting there having
[00:13:43] his lunch he was actually at his dessert was asking questions in between and all. So then at the end of it, I asked him, so what do you think of our business?
[00:15:00] And he said, in a country that loves to save, you're giving free money.
[00:15:04] What's there not to love?
[00:15:06] So we had that nice chat. I am just asking because I have to make a good assessment of what to do because if you are saying you are investing then I will suddenly get very happy then I don't want it to be like, oh, I am not going to do anything I am not going to do anything He said, no, no, I am not going to do anything, it's fine, just send us a box Oh my god I was like, okay, thank you, I am not going to do anything before he says anything else
[00:16:21] I am not going to do anything
[00:16:23] So then, first of I've also learned recently, actually, just in the last month, I've realized, as a leader, you really need to know when to push and when to let go, you know, and I've seen that there are times when I push my team, where I feel it's needed, because they do end up doing more, they do end up doing better, and they feel better about themselves also, because it's a great journey
[00:17:40] for them as well. But there are certain times when I know that like, they're already trying their best, So it's perfect. Right. Answer my next question, which was around what would have been an alternative career for you? I think you would really make a good stylist, but I'm really wanting to hear that answer. I would have probably stayed back in investment banking at Goldman. I would have probably made partner by now. Correct. Yeah, probably earn.
[00:19:01] We are earning more money also right now.
[00:19:03] But it's not about that.
[00:19:05] I think I've learned so density in India needs to be better. And we all hire the best that we can and afford, but talent is everything. Yeah, that's right. And what is that one proud moment of yours in your life till this date?
[00:20:20] Proud moment till this date. bring people together and I think people have fun at work, they're happy at work. I think happy people make for good professionals. So happiness is quite the core and the culture and I think that's why it's special and that's what I'm proud of. Yeah, I need to visit your office. You must come. But what's the worst and the best piece of advice that you've ever received?
[00:21:40] I think the best advice that I have got is to like at Goldman only one day somebody told me you know when you come for meetings you must wear a black suit. I said why? Because all the guys wear black suits it's very easy for you to blend in then. And I was thinking who's trying to blend in? I don't have to blend in. Yeah. Well lastly what's the last thing that you did for the first time?