Exclusive: On-Demand Marketplace For Beauty Services, VanityCube Raises Seed Funding From Group Of Angel Investors

Calling the beautician at your home is not a new concept for Indians. Many a times, salon workers offer freelance services to their old and trusted clients.

“But this model had many bugs, starting with the unavailability of the beautician at client’s preferred time, sometimes personnel is not aware of the new fashion trends and also there are few costly products that beauticians can’t afford to bring for the home visits”, said Renu Bisht, Co-Founder VanityCube.

Delhi-NCR based, VanityCube was founded by Renu  Bisht and Pragya Upadhyay in 2014 with a motto to become – ‘Uber for Beauty’. The startup has recently raised its seed round of funding from a group of angel investors. These newly raised funds will be utilised in expanding company’s technical capabilities, marketing and expansion into other cities. According to Renu, VanityCube will expand its reach into Mumbai by the next month.

How It Works?

A VanityCube appointment can be booked 90 minutes before the desired time, over a phone call or by using the website. After booking confirmation, beautician and client both receive the appointments’ whereabouts.

To ensure authenticity and trust in the system, every beautician carries an ID card, VanityCube kit, uniform and is duly verified by the company.  Services can be accessed anytime between 9 AM to 9 PM on all seven days of the week.

The startup operates as a B2B & B2C platform. While the B2C model caters only to the women and provides basic services like Facial, Waxing, Mani/Pedi, Makeup, Hair whereas the B2B model includes tying up with the corporates, stands unisex.

Company’s revenue is generated partially from services, and commissions.

Company’s B2C model deploys freelance beauticians and charges a commision of 30% on the freelancer’s earning. Whereas, B2B model involves permanent employees of the company and thus, revenue is generated directly from services. Currently, the company has served around six corporate clients in B2B.

VanityCube  adds value to its team of beauticians by keeping them updated with the latest trends of fashion world, availing standardised and professionally managed services.

Important Figures

• Ratio of Old v/s New customers: 65-70% are recurring
• Operational cities: Delhi & NCR
• No. of Trained Staff: Around 60 (40 odd Beauticians and  20 makeup artists)
• Average Turnaround Time: 90 Min
• Average Ticket Size: INR 1500- 1800
• Product Categories: Facial, Waxing, Mani/Pedi, Makeup, Hair

The major challenge for VanityCube was to make beauticians adapt to the idea of on-demand services. Most of the employees, came from professional Salons and were resilient towards visiting the client’s home without having met them ever before. But with the constant efforts by the team, 90% of the target employees developed a positive for the idea.

According to Renu, VanityCube is targeting a market size of $4.8 Bn.  This space has recently witnessed launch of numerous startups, working on different models and aspects. These include Vyomo, Purplle, Bulbul, Belita, StayGlad and many more. Among which, Mumbai-based Belita and Chandigarh-based Bulbul are the closest competitor of VanityCube, as they works on the same model of on-demand beauty services.

Further, Delhi-based Vyomo is a mobile marketplace for Beauty and Wellness segment on which, customers can search, discover, book, pay and rate the services. It had recently raised seed funding from Yuvraj Singh’s YouWeCan. Stayglad is an another mobile marketplace for beauty services, it had also raised an undisclosed amount in angel round of funding from Tracxn Labs, Sahil Barua of Delhivery and a few others. Also, Purplle, an online beauty and personal care site had raised Series A round of funding from IvyCap Ventures.

Commenting on the competition, Renu said, “We differentiate ourselves from the other players in the quality of our services, sticking to timelines and by providing an easy booking mechanism.”

With more and more companies taking the on-demand way, the space has become crowded, but it’s only the good executionists who’ll thrive in the long run.

VanityCube was one of the startups that pitched at our event StartupPulse Delhi event earlier this year.

 

We are now inviting applications for startups for second phase of StartupPulse, interested startups can apply here.