Beauty Services Aggregator Fabogo Raises $2.25 Mn From Dunamis Ventures

Beauty services and wellness aggregator Fabogo has raised $2.25 Mn (INR 14.5 Cr) from Dubai-based early-stage investor Dunamis Ventures.

The startup will use the recently raised funds to strengthen technology and to increase its user base. The remaining amount will be used for geographical expansion.

Fabogo was founded by Prasanjeet Roy and Mohammad Ali Akmal in March 2015. It allows users to discover beauty services at salons and spas in their locality. The company followed an international-first approach when it debuted in Dubai in May 2015. Later on, the startup launched operations in Pune and Mumbai in August 2015.

Commenting on the funding, Prasanjeet Roy, CEO & co-founder, Fabogo said “Our focus this time is technology because we’re entering the transaction game. We aim to become the market leaders in our existing cities by March next year. For that, we aim to grow at about 25,000 user downloads month-on-month.”

An official statement claims that, currently, Fabogo has more than 350K monthly users on its website. The startup is also planning to launch an Android and iOS app. The app will enable consumers to buy-book-redeem the beauty services around them.

The company currently claims to witness a growth of 20% month-on-month and driving an average of 500 appointments daily. It is currently following a ‘Pay-per-Lead’ based monetisation model: wherein it charges a small fee for every customer directed to a partnered venue.

As per a company statement, the company had earlier secured an angel round of funding of $500K in May 2015. This was followed by another round of $1 Mn in January 2016 as angel investment from PE investors in Dubai.

As per a recent report by Deloitte and Confederation Of Indian Industry, ‘Increasing awareness and growing aspirations of consumers to look good has opened up the beauty and wellness market. Currently, it is estimated at $6.5 Bn with a focus of moving the sector towards a more organised space. This sector is expected to grow at a CAGR of 24% in the next 10 years posing huge growth opportunities for FMCG and other companies.’

In April 2017, homegrown beauty and wellness company VLCC acquired on-demand beauty service provider VanityCube. Earlier the company had also acquired WellScience Health in the same month.

In December 2016, Amazon India also forayed into the on-demand beauty segment. Other players that compete with Fabogo in the salon aggregator sector include Nearbuy (that provides deals and discovery of Salons and Spa), Be U Salons, Glam Studios, among others.