Apis doubles down on Asia rewards, incentives space
Apis Partners has backed India-based rewards and incentives start-up Xoxoday through a USD 30m joint investment with Giift, one of its portfolio companies.
Xoxoday’s primary offering is Plum, a horizontal platform infrastructure for embedding rewards, incentives, and pay-out programs into workflow and managing them at scale. It has also developed Empuls, a vertical platform focused on workplace engagement, and Compass, which automates and gamifies sales incentives and commissions for sales teams.
The company was founded in 2012 by Sumit Khandelwal, Manoj Agarwal, Abhishek Kumar, and Kushal Agrawal. They started out running marketplaces for corporates looking to incentivise staff through gifting and experiences. The business morphed into a concierge service before occupying its current position in the corporate rewards, recognition, benefits, and engagement space.
Xoxoday works with more than 2,000 clients across 10 countries, serving over 2.5m users. It has a 270-strong team based in Bengaluru, New Delhi, San Francisco, Dublin, and Singapore. The company has been largely self-funded to date. The latest transaction comprises primary capital and the acquisition of secondary shares.
It comes a month after Apis committed USD 50m to Giift, a loyalty program management provider in Singapore. It manages more than 50,000 programs across some 55 countries with over 130m users. The company covers transactional rewards and user engagement, running rewards redemption and coupon-sharing platforms as well as a payment processing service.
“Xoxoday is a unique and powerful loyalty platform for employee, sales and consumer rewards. Our partnership with Xoxoday will enable Giift to offer the most comprehensive engagement and loyalty solution available on the market, and represents a big step forward in our mission to create the global standard for the loyalty industry,” said Laurent Xatart, co-founder and CEO of Giift.
Apis said in a statement that COVID-19 has exposed gaps in the way businesses engage with people, prompting increased investment in systems that offer better alignment with staff, customers, and partners. Udayan Goyal, a co-founder and managing partner at the private equity firm, added Xoxoday’s services are becoming more important with the rise of hybrid work environments.
Apis, an impact and financial technology-focused investor, originally identified Giift as a financial inclusion investment. The UK-headquartered GP is investing via its Apis Growth Fund II, which closed on USD 563m in late 2019, beating a target of USD 400m.
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