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Dubai-based Mazkara, a glam-tech startup that enables customers to search and discover salons & spas in their vicinity, has now launched its services in Pune.
Launched in May this year by Prasanjeet Roy and Mohammad Ali Akmal, Mazkara, enables customers to search and discover hyperlocal salons and spas, find best offers/deals and book appointments in a jiffy.
The company already has over 50,000 unique monthly users and facilitates over 500 appointments a day in the online beauty and wellness space.
Currently, the startup’s business model is based on selling subscription-based premium listings and tools on a monthly basis. It recently started its sales efforts in Dubai and already has over 50 venues as paid clients.
Mazkara is looking to expand to different geographies including Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah in the UAE. In India, besides Pune, it plans to expand its presence in Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata.
The company will soon roll out its mobile app for Android and iOS platforms along with enabling GPS capabilities. The app will help users discover right salon or spa close to their current location.
As for spa and salon owners, Mazkara provides a business-facing, cloud-based application to help them leverage the benefits of technology in successfully managing and scaling their businesses. It offers a dashboard for the management of salons and spas through which they can update their listing, interact with customers, view page-analytics and manage their bookings.
Announcing the launch in Pune, Prasanjeet Roy, co-founder & CEO at Mazkara, said,“Foray into Indian market is a crucial part of the company’s business growth strategy. We are geared to win over consumers in India through our seamless and elegant interface and wide choices of services. However, we wish to first carve a niche place for ourselves in the city of Pune by offering consumers a compelling experience and then expand our services to other cities in due course.”
Based on the initial prototype of the product built in February 2015, Mazkara, raised its first round of funding to the tune of $500K from Dubai-based angel investors. The funds are being used to set up the core engineering and content team and for launching services in the target markets of UAE and India.
The beauty industry in India is currently close to INR 500 Bn, with services contributing to INR 200 Bn and is growing at a rate of 18% CAGR.
Other players operating in this space in India include ManageMySpa, recently rebranded as Zenoti, Belita, Vyomo, Nykaa, etc.
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