Giift, a leading provider of loyalty management solutions, around the globe and Apis Partners, an ESGI-native global private equity and venture capital asset manager, backed by Apis Growth Fund II, a private equity fund managed by Apis Partners LLP, announced today that it has acquired a significant strategic interest in Xoxoday, a fintech disruptor in the rewards, incentives and payout space. The partnership included both primary and secondary capital components, and the collaboration will enable both Giift and Xoxoday to enlarge their service offerings and collectively accelerate growth globally. The Apis Group (“Apis”) is an ESGI-native global private equity and venture capital asset manager that supports growth-stage financial services and financial infrastructure businesses by providing them with catalytic growth equity capital.
Xoxoday provides technology infrastructure to enable businesses to automate rewards, incentives and payouts across the value chain. Xoxoday will use the US $30 million (225 crores INR) investment to fuel the next stage of growth in international markets and upgrade the technology infrastructure required to serve the next set of billion users.
It took a pandemic to expose the gaps in the way businesses engage with people. It is inevitable that businesses invest in systems that align people, delight customers, and empower their partners.
Xoxoday’s founders have been forerunners in creating solutions that the world has just started contemplating. Almost a decade ago, the four founders, Sumit Khandelwal, Manoj Agarwal, Abhishek Kumar, and Kushal Agrawal, began their entrepreneurial journey by solving the complex everyday problem of human motivation using technology. With a first-principles approach, they reimagined how rewards, incentives, and payouts should work via branded currency. Today, through its platform, Xoxoday enables rewards and incentives embedded and integrated in the flow of work across the value chain. Since different business contexts demand tailored solutions, Xoxoday has three SaaS offerings for the market.
- Plum, a horizontal platform infrastructure, automating rewards, incentives, and payouts programs at scale from the flow of work.
- Empuls, a vertical platform enabling organizations to build an engaged workplace, where everyone is aligned, motivated, empowered and connected.
- Compass, a platform automating and gamifying sales incentives and commissions for sales teams.
Co-Founder and CEO of Giift Laurent Xatart commented, “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.”
Sumit Khandelwal, Co-founder & CEO Xoxoday, added, “We firmly believe that growth compounds with the right people and right partners. With Giift and Apis Partners on board, I can only see growth upwards and onwards from here. Giift’s loyalty infrastructure and Xoxoday’s rewards infrastructure, together, cover the length and breadth of business use cases across the entire lifecycle for employees, channel partners, and consumers.”
Manoj Agarwal, Co-founder Xoxoday, says, “While we have been busy enabling rewards, it feels like we have been awarded today. However, it is not just us. The true architects of Xoxoday have been our customers, our employees, and partners, who are the ones rewarding us every day with their trust. I would like to thank our teams, customers & partners who have helped us grow. I am looking forward to working with the team at Giift and Apis Partners.”
Apis Partners Co-founder and Managing Partner Matteo Stefanel said: “We are delighted to announce our partnership with Xoxoday. It is rare to see a business with such a strong founding team and targeting such an under-invested opportunity. Xoxoday’s impressive and largely self-financed growth over the last decade is a testament to the sharp focus with which the team has been executing its plans.”
Udayan Goyal, Apis Partners Co-founder, and Managing Partner added: “Following Apis’ recent partnership with Giift, we are very happy to be expanding our efforts in the rewards and loyalty sector with Xoxoday. The space that Xoxoday occupies is becoming a necessity around the world for businesses, particularly as the world transitions to a hybrid work environment. The convergence with financial services further leverages Apis’ sector-specific expertise in fintech. We are excited to support them in the next phase of their growth.”
