I am Kunal Shah, Founder of FreeCharge. Ask Me Anything!

Hello TIA Community,

I started FreeCharge along with Sandeep Tandon in August 2010 with the aim to build a business that turned Recharges into Rewarding Experiences for its consumers.

In April 2015, FreeCharge was acquired by Snapdeal (India’s largest online marketplace). As a result of this, together the entity is India’s largest Mobile Commerce company with over a Million Transactions per day and a 40 Million strong user base. This also is the largest acquisition ever done in Indian Startup ecosystem; post acquisition FreeCharge continues to be an independent entity.

FreeCharge emerged as a leader in mobile commerce in 2014, witnessing over 1000% growth and crossing over 10 million app downloads, making it the fastest growing app in the shopping category in India. We (FreeCharge) have also acquired Wishberg and Preburn, two emerging technology startups, in 2014. In its journey, FreeCharge raised over $115MM of venture capital from a host of marquee investors – Sequoia Capital, Ru-Net, Sofina, Tybourne, and Valiant Capital Partners.

My current mission: to get every single Indian to experience a single transaction via FreeCharge

Here are some topics you can tick my brains on:

• Start-ups
• Entrepreneurship In general
• Payments
• E-commerce
• Funding

Here are some other fun facts:

• I am a Philosophy major and an MBA dropout.
• FreeCharge was started as a start-up called Paisaback – an offline marketing promotions company which later evolved to an online recharge platform.
• I am great at Poker 🙂

Ask me anything!

Note from Daniel, TIA’s community manager:
The host may choose at his/her preference to not answer particular questions. The AMA is moderated by the community managers, so let’s keep the questions friendly. 🙂

Read more about FreeCharge here:

• The Story of Sequoia-backed FreeCharge and its Success in India
• With $33M funding, Sequoia-backed FreeCharge pivots to targeted advertising
• India’s FreeCharge acquires Preburn, an app distribution network by IITians
• Snapdeal acquires FreeCharge: here’s everything you need to know about India’s biggest acquisition
• FreeCharge raises $80 million as its uniquely Indian rewards-based model gains traction