Exclusive: Two IIT’ans Tackling The $40 Bn Wedding Industry, Just Got Funded

Recent development of significant investments in Indian Consumer Internet companies have started a virtuous circle, where foreign money fuelled companies are investing hugely in educating Indians about internet and ecommerce, payment and logistics, spiralling demand which in turn is fetching more investment and skyrocketing the valuation.

This cycle has irreversibly changed how the India and Bharat, treat the internet.

“The transformed India is comparatively much more adaptive to internet and is not afraid to experiment. “

Riding on this wave are two IIT graduates Himanshu and Manish who are tackling the $ 40 Bn Wedding planning Industry heads on. Started a year back, ShaadiSaga is one stop wedding solution for people to Share, Plan and Celebrate their Wedding journey. The startup connects couples with quality merchants to plan their big day & help merchants build their business online and provide various tools for people to share their wedding, various tips and ideas for making the wedding affair more special.

The startup has recently raised undisclosed amount in a funding round led by Outbox Ventures.

The wedding industry is a huge market and there is lot of gap in what kind of wedding people would like to have against what they are having. Part of it is due to information gap. ShaadiSaga fundamentally believes that internet and technology can add a lot of value and efficiency here and thus want to create a trusted ecosystem which benefits all the stakeholders in long-term.

How it all started

It all started with the confusion of a founder about what to gift a dear friend who was getting married. They developed simple idea of a list of gifts Wishlist to be used by marrying  couple, which guest could refer while deciding upon a gift. While later they decided that  people are still not buy the idea of creating a gift list, they decided to pursue the whole wedding planning industry and set for an aim to bring it online.

In last 3 months, ShaadiSaga has provided services to more than 2000 couples.

How does it work

Suppose  you need a photographer for your wedding, as per your budgetary requirements and the kind of photography you want, you can filter among photographers as per rating given to individual merchants and you can shortlist the merchants which will be most suitable to your needs and contact them directly.  Same can be done for other services like Makeup-artists, Choreographers, Djs, Wedding planners and other services.

If that is not easy enough, you can just call us and we will figure out rest of the things for you.

Couples can create a free wedding website with us to share with loved ones and get tips, recommendations and ideas to make their day more special.

How did the name come into place

We understand that wedding is one of the important most affair in couples’ life. It is much more important than sum of all planning, rituals and celebration. It is a beginning of two people starting their life together and planning to be a part of each other life. As it a starting of a beautiful story together , A SAGA. Thus name ShaadiSaga.

Target Market

ShaadiSaga currently is targeting Indian (Resident and Non – Resident ) who might not have a lot of free time for planning their but still want to make their wedding a unique and special experience. It connects them to quality merchants who can understand and fulfil their needs. Destination wedding is one such area where lot of people are using their services. Couples from all demographics are creating their personal website on the platform.

Indian Wedding market is majorly offline and quite un-sorted so wedding planning can be very challenging. Shaadisaga is leveraging  technology and internet to simplify the process. “Today’s young generation believes in engagements and deep down the line we all connect to a certain level – ShaadiSaga is not only a platform where engaged couples can find wedding planning solutions, it is also these service providers who make lifelong relationships and experience things they wouldn’t otherwise be able to” – says the Founders.

The startup plans to use the funds raised for expanding to more cities, reach out to more couples and develop more capabilities for various service providers to better manage their business online.

Founder Himanshu Kapsime, 25, is the young CEO, an entrepreneur at heart, the product guy with a tech background, the Risk taker & Growth hacker. He passed from IIT Delhi with a degree in Electrical engineering and Manish Garg, 25, COO & co-founder, an IIT Delhi passout is business geek, finance guy & the solution finder. and a visionary in making. He passed from IIT Delhi in 2011.