Playcez

Based in New Delhi, India, Playcez Technologies Private Limited was established in 2010 by Ashwani Gaur, an alumnus of IIT Kanpur with prior experience at Deloitte. The company, which also lists Manju Gour as a director, operated as a platform for discovering local points of interest. Initially conceived as a location-based social game, the concept evolved into a recommendation engine for places to eat, shop, or socialize.

Playcez positioned itself as a visual recommendation tool, aiming to bridge the gap between local search platforms and social commentary on platforms like Facebook and Foursquare. The core of its service was a proprietary algorithm that ranked locations based on their online reputation, factoring in likes and check-ins to provide users with ranked recommendations of popular spots in their vicinity. The mobile-first application pulled data such as tips and reviews from various social networks to enhance its suggestions. The business model focused on generating revenue through partnerships with deal aggregation platforms, earning a commission on each successful deal conversion facilitated by its recommendation engine.

The company was a graduate of the GSF India accelerator program. In March 2013, Playcez secured approximately $500,000 in a seed funding round. The investment was led by Rajesh Sawhney of GSF India and Mukul Singhal of SAIF Partners. This capital was intended to help the company expand its reach among the growing smartphone user base in India. The company was eventually acqui-hired and its corporate status is now listed as 'Strike Off'.

Keywords: destination discovery, local search, social recommendation, mobile application, event discovery, location-based service, visual recommendation engine, place discovery, social check-in, deal aggregation, GSF India, Ashwani Gaur, Playcez Technologies, restaurant finder, city guide, social travel, local recommendations, mobile-first, user-generated reviews, location-based deals