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Route Indian shoppers to online merchants, then share completed-sale marketing fees as cashback and referral rewards.
20 million customers · ₹10 crore loss
Cashback only compounds when shoppers trust the payout and each confirmed order still leaves margin after the reward.
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CashKaro is an Indian cashback and coupon platform that routes shoppers to merchants such as Amazon, Flipkart, and Myntra, then returns part of its affiliate marketing fee to users as cashback. Co-founder Rohan Bhargava describes the model as charging partners for completed sales rather than clicks, while helping shoppers compare prices, discover brands, and earn on purchases they already planned to make. In the CNBC-TV18 interview, Bhargava says revenue grew from about ₹100 crore to ₹225 crore in the previous financial year, with losses held at about ₹10 crore in both years. The company had 20 million customers and aimed to reach 100 million. Referral was described as one of the strongest acquisition sources because users talk about receiving money back. The business also operates EarnKaro, a referral-link product for influencers, and CashKaro Stores, a network of nearly 20,000 kirana stores serving shoppers who are less comfortable buying online. The capital-intensive challenge is balancing cashback, partner economics, brand awareness, and profitability while operating at national scale.
For a cashback marketplace, the first users should come from a narrow group already shopping with participating merchants. Start with a small set of high-demand retailers and make the savings calculation obvious: show the merchant offer, expected cashback, tracking status, and redemption rules before the click-out.
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Data credibility: Founder interview on CNBC-TV18; revenue, customer, GMV, and loss figures are founder-reported and not audited within the segment.
The first dollar for a cashback service arrives from the merchant side after a shopper completes a tracked purchase. The platform must send a qualified referral, receive confirmation from the affiliate network or merchant, and reconcile the commission before allocating the promised user reward.
CashKaro’s intended growth loop is simple: shoppers earn cashback, tell friends and family, and bring more purchase volume to merchants; greater volume can strengthen the platform’s negotiating position and make future offers more compelling. Build the loop around actual value received, not referral sign-ups alone.
A cashback business will face a long trust-building period before its numbers feel self-reinforcing. Merchant attribution can take weeks, users may ask where a pending reward went, and a cancelled order can erase expected commission.
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