Qwikcilver has 300 brands on card platform

Qwikcilver, a software as a service-based gift card company, said that in the past year it had doubled the number of brands it was working within India and abroad to 300.

One reason for the growth, said the Bengaluru-based company’s cofounder Pratap TP, was that the company entered categories that are not immediately associated with gift cards, such as online matrimony services, automotive services, online music and jewellery.

“Going forward, we see growth coming from new segments like jewellery, education, healthcare and charity. The other is an increase in collaboration across brands,” he said.

In the past few months there has been a rise in non-competing brands partnering to cross-sell their offerings through gift cards, such as a travel company offering resort vouchers or a supermarket promoting occasion-based gifting to boost consumer engagement.

“This is a new avatar in the gift card category and we expect this to drive growth going forward. While these instances were sporadic in the past, brands can use the tech platform to monitor and track how gift cards are being used,” said Pratap. The company recorded more than 200 million gift card transactions last year, about 65% of which originated through enterprise partnerships where large banks or consumer goods firms used gift cards as an employee or consumer engagement tool.