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Delhi-based wedding service marketplace ShaadiSaga has raised an undisclosed amount in Pre-Series A round of funding led by ah! Ventures.
Anupam Mittal (People Group), Kunal Shah & Sandeep Tandon (Freecharge.com), Dheeraj Jain (Redcliffe Capital), Rohit Chokhani (White Unicorn Ventures), also participated in this round along with a few other angel investors.
The recent fund infusion will be utilised to increase the partner’s base associated with the platform. It will also be investing in building technologies to ensure higher conversion rates.
The ShaadiSaga Journey To Date
ShaadiSaga was launched in 2014 by two IIT graduates Himanshu Kapsime and Manish Garg as a one-stop wedding solution for people to share, plan and celebrate their wedding journey.
As explained by Himanshu, ShaadiSaga’s vision is not just to help customers in the discovery of vendors for their wedding errands. “We are helping couples in three dimensions – discovery, decision making and fulfillment – a 360-degree affair to create a platform which could be considered as a wedding planning enabler,” he added.
The startup connects couples with quality merchants to plan their big day and helps merchants build their business online. It also provides various tools for people to share their wedding, tips and ideas for making the wedding affair more special.
Current Status: Traction, Funding, Challenges
It is currently a 25 member team. The platform offers its users an option to choose from a pool of around 6000 service providers offering all types of wedding-related services. It has over 2500 vendors with price and quality assurance – The ShaadiSaga Seal of Trust, to allow users hire them directly. The startup primarily focusses on weddings planned between a budget of INR 10 Lakhs to INR 1.5 Cr.
“Our team uses technology to essentially bring the offline wedding planning experience onto an online platform, while adding convenience and cost effectiveness. Couples save around 20-30% of wedding budget and two months of planning time with us, while ensuring better quality and experience,” said Himanshu.
When asked about the challenges, Himanshu said, “Even today there is no standardisation in this market. The market is very unorganised and that is the biggest challenge for us.”
Dheeraj Jain, Managing Partner of Redcliffe Capital said, “The revenue of INR 50 lakhs per month and growing, stands testament to the incessant progress of the company. Given the astute business acumen of the core team at ShaadiSaga, we are excited to back these entrepreneurs and their journey to take Indian wedding industry by storm.”
Earlier in January 2015, the startup had raised an undisclosed amount in Seed funding from OutBox Ventures.
Innovations In The Online Wedding Space
From the pre-wedding photo shoots to inviting the gambolling celebrities, the wedding industry has witnessed a drastic change in the recent past. Lately, the space has seen an emergence of different businesses to cater to the wedding needs.
There are portals like Weddingplz, Bigindianwedding, Planningwale, ShaadiMagic offering wedding & event search directories where users can search, compare & book vendors from different categories available. Then there are startups like WedMeGood, Weddings.co, WeddingPlanning.co, ShaadiOnline, ShaadiSaga etc., catering to the space from a 360-degree angle, providing all major services under one roof.
Also there are a few startups who have found other avenues. Like Chennai-based wedding gift registry portal WeddingWishlist which allows prospective couples to share their gift preferences with their near and dear ones. In July this year, it raised $297K (INR 2 crore) in Seed funding from Facebook India MD Kirthiga Reddy, Multiples Equity founder Renuka Ramanath, and Cherry Tin among others.
Then there is JoinMyWedding launched in mid-2016, offering holidays to people, especially foreigners, to Indian weddings. A typical cost for a person to attend such a wedding is around $150-$400 and includes staying at the location, food and wedding activities – which helps people with a curiosity in the Indian culture to completely immerse themselves in an all-encompassing experience.
Harshad Lahoti, Founder and CEO of ah! Ventures said,
“Statistically the Indian wedding industry, valued at $40 Bn, is proving to be one of the sturdiest in today’s market. Considering the high growth rate of 25-30% YoY, promising startups in Indian wedding space were deserving investors attention and Shaadisaga was undoubtedly cut above the rest. From the very beginning, we witnessed Shaadisaga take calculated business decisions making them the rare breed of startups who knew their priorities. The venture focusses on taking one key step at a time, – be it a technological advancement or on-boarding of key partners – and that according to us has been the edge that sets them apart. We at ah! Ventures are confident of seeing Shaadisaga as a pioneer in this industry.”
ah! Ventures’ CLUB ah! platform has over 12500+ startups, 725 seed/angel investors and over 85 VCs & institutional investors. Last year the network also secured its first profitable exit from EdTech venture Harness Handitouch within two years of its investment.
Till date, it has invested close to INR 90 Cr in over 29 investments spread across varied industries and domains. The recent investments include Joolz, DriversKart, iTraveller.com, Shirsa Labs, and more. Also, it is in the process of closing another investment in the coming week.
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