freecharge

FreeCharge is an Indian digital payments company that operated primarily as a mobile wallet and payments platform. It was founded in 2012 by Kunal Shah and Sandeep Tewari, with headquarters in Bengaluru. The service began as a prepaid mobile recharge and bill payments app and expanded to include merchant payments, peer-to-peer transfers, and cashback promotions. FreeCharge positioned itself in a competitive market dominated by early mobile wallets and aimed to attract users through aggressive cashback and partnerships with banks and merchants.

In 2015, FreeCharge was acquired by the e-commerce company Snapdeal for about $450 million, one of India's notable tech acquisitions at the time. The purchase integrated FreeCharge into Snapdeal’s payments infrastructure, and FreeCharge continued to operate as a brand within the Snapdeal ecosystem for several years. As the Indian payments landscape evolved, including the growth of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and other wallets, the FreeCharge consumer wallet faced pressure from larger players and shifting strategic priorities.

During the late 2010s, the standalone FreeCharge wallet and app saw reduced activity as resources were redirected toward Snapdeal’s broader payments platform and merchant payments. By this period, FreeCharge’s consumer wallet had largely faded from prominence as a distinct product, with its technology and assets incorporated into Snapdeal’s overall payments framework and related services.

FreeCharge is notable for contributing to the early growth of mobile wallets in India and for illustrating the consolidation dynamics within India’s digital payments sector, where competition and platform—level partnerships helped spur broader adoption of cashless payments.