JustRechargeIt raises funding from Ladderup, others; Investors acquire 25% stake

Mumbai‐based JustRechargeIt (part of JRI Technologies Pvt Ltd) has raised an undisclosed funding, led by Ladderup Finance Ltd, a mid‐market‐ focused and independently owned boutique investment bank. A consortium of investors also took part in the funding round.

The company also received undisclosed angel funding when it was launched in February 2011.

All the investors, including Ladderup Finance, acquired a total of 25 per cent stake in the company.

The funding will be utilised for brand building, hiring talents and developing better technology.

With million-plus registered customers, JustRechargeIt specialises in mobile, data card and DTH recharges. It has a multi‐lingual site, featuring 10 Indian languages such as Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Punjabi, Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and more.

We have noticed that unlike other recharge sites, JustRechargeIt is not offering free gift coupons or such other props for customer acquisition.

Talking to Techcircle.in, Anannya Datta, founder and CEO of JRI Technologies said, “As we are operating online, we will do some advertising via the digital medium to acquire more customers. And we are already doing Google AdWords.”

The company also intends to tie up with a deal site – similar to what PayTM and Times Deal do. In addition, it will continue with direct selling, but will try and give discounts in future.

Currently a team of 15, JustRechargeIt wants to up the number to 50 by 2012.

JRI Technologies is also looking to foray into other businesses, leveraging the database of JustRechargeIt, added Datta.

The promoters had earlier set up an IT services firm called WebCompetency Inc., which runs a little-known OTA Instareserve. Instareserve, run as a separate entity, is being brought under JRI Technologies and will be renamed and rebranded as JustReserveIt on the lines of JustRechargeIt.

According to Datta, “There are around 911 million mobile phone users in India, 95 per cent of which are prepaid subscribers. As of now, only 1 per cent of the total mobile recharges are done online. There are nearly 40 million DTH subscribers in India and the entire DTH industry works on the prepaid model. There is a lot we need to do, as more and more Indians are coming online for recharging their mobiles, DTH and data cards. The funding would help our company achieve our next level of growth.”

Commenting on the deal, Sunil Goyal, CEO of Ladderup Finance, said, “We encouraged JRI Technologies to go for this funding because we are very excited about the momentum the company is experiencing and believe that with this capital, it can grow even faster.”

Ladderup’s portfolio companies include fast food firm Jumbo King Foods, security company Tops Group, dairy firm Parag Milk Foods and supply chain company Algorhythm Tech. Most recently, it has invested in Annapurna Pet Pvt Ltd, which is into manufacturing of PET preforms.