Online Aggregator Of Budget Salons Be U Salons Secures $619K Funding

Delhi-based chain of standardised salons, Be U Salons has secured $619K (INR 4 Cr) in its Seed round of funding from a clutch of investors from UAE, Singapore, and India.

The funding round was led by Gaurav Kachru from 5 ideas Startup Superfuel and saw participation from Jatin Aneja, Partner at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas; Sundeep Singh Sahni, founder, Lazada Group and former VP, Ola – New Initiatives; Bikramjiet Kukreja, and Arun Malhotra, among others.

The infused funds will be used to strengthen Be U’s market position in North India, as per an official statement. The money will also be used to strengthen the back-end operations and tech infrastructure of the company, acquire core talent, and marketing operations.

Launched in 2016 by Vikas Johari, Shailendra Nagvani, and Jigyasa Gupta, the salon chain operates in both B2B and B2C space. Banking on an asset-light, tech-enabled model, the salons claim to offer standardised services, affordable prices, trained professionals, clean and hygienic outlets and cashless payments.

Vikas Johari, CEO and founder, Be U Salons said, “Around 90% of the Indian salon industry comprises standalone outlets, where most of them suffer from lack of a back-end infrastructure, standardisation, technological automation, intelligent pricing, branding and marketing, amongst many others. We are here to provide a support ecosystem to bring them out of this crisis.”

Currently, the startup has 20 operational salons spread across Delhi-NCR and claims to serve more than 250 customers a day. It further plans to open over 100 outlets in 2017 across multiple cities in India.

The online beauty and wellness segment has lately seen a surge in demand. As per a November 2016 report by KPMG Wellness Sector, India’s beauty and wellness market is expected to double to $12.45 Bn by 2017-18.

In April 2016, salon chain Naturals invested $15 Mn in Vyomo and rebranded it as Naturals@Home. In June 2016, Mumbai-based beauty chain Enrich Salon acquired on-demand beauty platform Belita for an undisclosed amount.

In August 2016, online classifieds portal Quikr acquired on-demand beauty, wellness and fitness app, ZapLuk. The acquisition was done in a bid to scale Quikr’s beauty services brand AtHomeDiva. In September 2016, Noida-based chain of standardised salons, Glam Studios secured $299K (INR 2 Cr) angel funding from Pradeep Mirani and others.

Other startups in this segment include Purplle, Zenoti, Mazkara, Stayglad, etc.