Collaborative Co-Working Chain myHQ Raises $500K In A Funding Led By Anupam Mittal

Delhi headquartered myHQ, a unique collaborative coworking model in India has raised a funding of 5,00,000 USD in a round led by Anupam Mittal (Founder of People Group - Shaadi.com). The round also saw participation from Sachin Bhatia (Founder of TrulyMadly and MakeMyTrip), Nitish Mittersain (CEO & Founder of Nazara Tech), Singapore Angel Network, Outbox Ventures, GEMBA Capital and other angel investors from the online platform LetsVenture.

Interestingly, myHQ is Anupam Mittal's second investment in co-working space segment within a month, as he recently invested an undisclosed amount in StayAbode, a start-up that is building co-living spaces.

Being one of the fastest growing and innovative co-working start-ups in India, myHQ plans to utilize the funds in expanding to over 200+ spaces across 3 cities, strengthen its technology to provide a standardized and consistent work experience and to build a strong offline and online community.

Founded in 2016 by IIT Delhi alumnus Utkarsh Kawatra and Vinayak Agarawal, myHQ is disrupting the coworking market with its unique model. Unlike other co-working spaces in the market, myHQ is building a chain of collaborative work spaces by taking up curated spaces inside well designed cafes, lounges and offices. Whether it is a pub which is not operational during the day or a café which has unused inventory – myHQ exclusively focusses on such spaces and converts them into hassle-free work zones. myHQ already has a strong presence in Delhi/NCR with over 60 spaces and 4000+ community members using the spaces regularly.

myHQ with its subscription based model frees the user from all the hassles of a workspace: Free from deposit, free from monthly rental, free from commitment to any one work space. With a myHQ subscription, the users get access to myHQ spaces at all its location with lifetime validity and standardised work amenities such as high speed Wi-Fi, office stationery, free printing, optimal lighting and seating, and exclusive F&B offers.

Commenting on the development, Utkarsh Kawatra, Cofounder & CEO of myHQ, said, “Our expansion plans with this round of funding are totally in sync with our aim to provide plug-n-play and affordable workspaces in every neighbourhood. With the growing demand for coworking across the country, our asset light technology enabled approach sets us apart and ensures we are able to run operationally profitable centres in each neighbourhood while being the most economical solution in the market”

Talking about the investment, Anupam Mittal, Founder of People Group (Shaadi.com), said, “India is primarily an SME and freelance economy which is only going to accelerate in the coming years. The major coworking space players in India are geared more towards corporates and can be too expensive for the SME/freelancer market- On the supply side, India is a high rent retail market and so existing spaces like cafes, offices, hotels need to supplement their income. myHQ provides a neat, technology enabled way to do this”

Beyond proving a work space, myHQ also supports freelancers and SMEs by helping them grow their business. The myHQ mobile app provides the users a platform to manage their subscription, reserve spaces and network with other like-minded community members.

In addition, Outbox Ventures and Angad Pasricha of TCNS (/W for Women) were the initial investors in myHQ with a funding of 100,000 USD in July 2016.

Other Investments in Co-Working Space Segment

In April, Gurgaon-based co-working spaces startup, GoWork, also announced that it is targeting to invest $1 billion (~ Rs 6,500 crore) over the next five years in setting up its 50 shared offices across India.

Last September, popular co-working firm 91springboard raised $20 million from Sandway, Pearl Brook, AMA Holdings, Silo Holdings and Al Nour.

Last August, New York-based WeWork, the world's top co-working startup by valuation, starts building a core team to enter the National Capital Region and received whopping $4.4 billion investment from Japan’s SoftBank.

Earlier in July 2017, WeWork opened its first community workspace in India – ‘WeWork Galaxy”, in Bengaluru’. As per the Crunchbase website, WeWork has raised nearly $10 billion in funding since it was launched.

In June 2017, another co-working venture, BHIVE Workspace, raised $1.2 million from Blume Ventures and others.

Collaborative Co-Working Chain myHQ Raises $500K In A Funding Led By Anupam Mittal

Delhi headquartered myHQ, a unique collaborative coworking model in India has raised a funding of 5,00,000 USD in a round led by Anupam Mittal (Founder of People Group - Shaadi.com). The round also saw participation from Sachin Bhatia (Founder of TrulyMadly and MakeMyTrip), Nitish Mittersain (CEO & Founder of Nazara Tech), Singapore Angel Network, Outbox Ventures, GEMBA Capital and other angel investors from the online platform LetsVenture.

Interestingly, myHQ is Anupam Mittal's second investment in co-working space segment within a month, as he recently invested an undisclosed amount in StayAbode, a start-up that is building co-living spaces.

Being one of the fastest growing and innovative co-working start-ups in India, myHQ plans to utilize the funds in expanding to over 200+ spaces across 3 cities, strengthen its technology to provide a standardized and consistent work experience and to build a strong offline and online community.

Founded in 2016 by IIT Delhi alumnus Utkarsh Kawatra and Vinayak Agarawal, myHQ is disrupting the coworking market with its unique model. Unlike other co-working spaces in the market, myHQ is building a chain of collaborative work spaces by taking up curated spaces inside well designed cafes, lounges and offices. Whether it is a pub which is not operational during the day or a café which has unused inventory – myHQ exclusively focusses on such spaces and converts them into hassle-free work zones. myHQ already has a strong presence in Delhi/NCR with over 60 spaces and 4000+ community members using the spaces regularly.

myHQ with its subscription based model frees the user from all the hassles of a workspace: Free from deposit, free from monthly rental, free from commitment to any one work space. With a myHQ subscription, the users get access to myHQ spaces at all its location with lifetime validity and standardised work amenities such as high speed Wi-Fi, office stationery, free printing, optimal lighting and seating, and exclusive F&B offers.

Commenting on the development, Utkarsh Kawatra, Cofounder & CEO of myHQ, said, “Our expansion plans with this round of funding are totally in sync with our aim to provide plug-n-play and affordable workspaces in every neighbourhood. With the growing demand for coworking across the country, our asset light technology enabled approach sets us apart and ensures we are able to run operationally profitable centres in each neighbourhood while being the most economical solution in the market”

Talking about the investment, Anupam Mittal, Founder of People Group (Shaadi.com), said, “India is primarily an SME and freelance economy which is only going to accelerate in the coming years. The major coworking space players in India are geared more towards corporates and can be too expensive for the SME/freelancer market- On the supply side, India is a high rent retail market and so existing spaces like cafes, offices, hotels need to supplement their income. myHQ provides a neat, technology enabled way to do this”

Beyond proving a work space, myHQ also supports freelancers and SMEs by helping them grow their business. The myHQ mobile app provides the users a platform to manage their subscription, reserve spaces and network with other like-minded community members.

In addition, Outbox Ventures and Angad Pasricha of TCNS (/W for Women) were the initial investors in myHQ with a funding of 100,000 USD in July 2016.

Other Investments in Co-Working Space Segment

In April, Gurgaon-based co-working spaces startup, GoWork, also announced that it is targeting to invest $1 billion (~ Rs 6,500 crore) over the next five years in setting up its 50 shared offices across India.

Last September, popular co-working firm 91springboard raised $20 million from Sandway, Pearl Brook, AMA Holdings, Silo Holdings and Al Nour.

Last August, New York-based WeWork, the world's top co-working startup by valuation, starts building a core team to enter the National Capital Region and received whopping $4.4 billion investment from Japan’s SoftBank.

Earlier in July 2017, WeWork opened its first community workspace in India – ‘WeWork Galaxy”, in Bengaluru’. As per the Crunchbase website, WeWork has raised nearly $10 billion in funding since it was launched.

In June 2017, another co-working venture, BHIVE Workspace, raised $1.2 million from Blume Ventures and others.

Co-living Spaces Startup StayAbode Raises Pre-Series A Funding

StayAbode, a start-up that is building co-living spaces, has closed a pre-Series A round of funding for an undisclosed amount from Anupam Mittal (CEO, People Group) and Vineet Sekhsaria (Head, Real Estate investing, Morgan Stanley) and Japanese gaming company Akatsuki Inc. The investment comes after a strategic round led by Incubate Fund and a group of investors from the real estate industry including Legacy Global Projects MD Sanjay Shenoy and Mridul Upreti (ex Joint MD JLL India) last year.

The funds are being used to scale the business and create more supply as demand increases. StayAbode currently has 950 beds live and is operating at 97% occupancy at 15 properties across Bengaluru and has plans to expand to other cities in due course. 12 more buildings are due to be launched in Bangalore as the company goes deeper into micro markets. The company continues to be operationally profitable.

Last August, the startup had raised an undisclosed amount from Incubate Fund and a group of investors from the real estate industry including Legacy Global Projects MD Sanjay Shenoy and Mridul Upreti (ex Joint MD JLL India). Prior to that, it raised angel funding, again for an undisclosed amount, from a consortium of investors led by Ishan Manaktala and Angie Mahtaney. Gaurav Bhalotia (Ex-VP Engineering, Flipkart), Vishal Lulla (CEO, VIshal Exports) and a group of Investors, in February last year.

Co-living is gradually becoming the preferred way of living for several reasons - saves money, is more fulfilling than living alone, people want to make/have friends to share common interests with and it’s easier to move in when shifting to a new city.

Viral Chhajer, Co-founder & CEO, StayAbode, says, “We’re excited to partner with investors that believe that co-living is the future of residential real-estate for millennials and see this as an opportunity to create a new asset class in real estate investing. Each of our investors brings on-board a unique perspective to our vision of redefining the way millennials live in our cities. Capital raised now will be primarily used to make key hires across verticals and set the base for our expansion into our cities across the country”.

Tomoya Ogawa, CFO at Akatsuki, Inc. and Managing Director of AET Fund, says, “We’re thrilled to partner with Viral and his team to support the growth of StayAbode. Co-living space is not just financially attractive, but will also enable millennials to have a more fulfilling and delightful living experience through bonding and social activities. We look forward to boosting this delight to the next level by offering our expertise in the entertainment-related field”.

Angel investor Anupam Mittal, adds, “Given land prices in the country, co-living is perhaps the only solution to India’s affordable housing woes. Co-living allows millennials to buy into a meaningful lifestyle without the hassle that comes with renting and without compromising on location and affordability in case of buying. The space is set to explode much like co-working has and so I am excited to back StayAbode with its excellent execution track record”.

StayAbode is leveraging technology, design, service and brand to build co-living spaces for the rental residential real estate market at scale. StayAbode’s co-living spaces mixes small private spaces – a bedroom and bathroom, with communal areas - common rooms, games areas, common kitchens and living rooms, music and art corners etc. At these co-living spaces one doesn’t need to be bothered about managing a household. The experience is that of a boutique hotel where - utility bills are paid, housekeeping is done, linen workfwashed and where one cooks only when one feels like. At these co-living spaces one can connect with like-minded people.

In June last year, the company filed for a provisional patent for its Workforce Management System that uses internal positioning systems which will allow them to efficiently manage their service teams including security and housekeeping.

StayAbode was co-founded in October 2016 by Viral Chhajer, Varun Bhalla and Devashish Dalmiya who have strong backgrounds in marketing, technology and finance having founded start-ups and previously worked at start-ups like Runnr, Treebo Hotels and Roadhouse Hostels.

Akatsuki is a world-leading mobile game developer and publisher based in Tokyo, Japan, and AET Fund is its corporate VC arm. The fund aims to contribute to the lifestyle change in India by leveraging Akatsuki’s expertise in entertainment. This is AET fund's first investment in India and with this they're now looking to make more investments in India.

[Top Image - www.facebook.com/stayabodecoliving/]

Co-living Spaces Startup StayAbode Raises Pre-Series A Funding

StayAbode, a start-up that is building co-living spaces, has closed a pre-Series A round of funding for an undisclosed amount from Anupam Mittal (CEO, People Group) and Vineet Sekhsaria (Head, Real Estate investing, Morgan Stanley) and Japanese gaming company Akatsuki Inc. The investment comes after a strategic round led by Incubate Fund and a group of investors from the real estate industry including Legacy Global Projects MD Sanjay Shenoy and Mridul Upreti (ex Joint MD JLL India) last year.

The funds are being used to scale the business and create more supply as demand increases. StayAbode currently has 950 beds live and is operating at 97% occupancy at 15 properties across Bengaluru and has plans to expand to other cities in due course. 12 more buildings are due to be launched in Bangalore as the company goes deeper into micro markets. The company continues to be operationally profitable.

Last August, the startup had raised an undisclosed amount from Incubate Fund and a group of investors from the real estate industry including Legacy Global Projects MD Sanjay Shenoy and Mridul Upreti (ex Joint MD JLL India). Prior to that, it raised angel funding, again for an undisclosed amount, from a consortium of investors led by Ishan Manaktala and Angie Mahtaney. Gaurav Bhalotia (Ex-VP Engineering, Flipkart), Vishal Lulla (CEO, VIshal Exports) and a group of Investors, in February last year.

Co-living is gradually becoming the preferred way of living for several reasons - saves money, is more fulfilling than living alone, people want to make/have friends to share common interests with and it’s easier to move in when shifting to a new city.

Viral Chhajer, Co-founder & CEO, StayAbode, says, “We’re excited to partner with investors that believe that co-living is the future of residential real-estate for millennials and see this as an opportunity to create a new asset class in real estate investing. Each of our investors brings on-board a unique perspective to our vision of redefining the way millennials live in our cities. Capital raised now will be primarily used to make key hires across verticals and set the base for our expansion into our cities across the country”.

Tomoya Ogawa, CFO at Akatsuki, Inc. and Managing Director of AET Fund, says, “We’re thrilled to partner with Viral and his team to support the growth of StayAbode. Co-living space is not just financially attractive, but will also enable millennials to have a more fulfilling and delightful living experience through bonding and social activities. We look forward to boosting this delight to the next level by offering our expertise in the entertainment-related field”.

Angel investor Anupam Mittal, adds, “Given land prices in the country, co-living is perhaps the only solution to India’s affordable housing woes. Co-living allows millennials to buy into a meaningful lifestyle without the hassle that comes with renting and without compromising on location and affordability in case of buying. The space is set to explode much like co-working has and so I am excited to back StayAbode with its excellent execution track record”.

StayAbode is leveraging technology, design, service and brand to build co-living spaces for the rental residential real estate market at scale. StayAbode’s co-living spaces mixes small private spaces – a bedroom and bathroom, with communal areas - common rooms, games areas, common kitchens and living rooms, music and art corners etc. At these co-living spaces one doesn’t need to be bothered about managing a household. The experience is that of a boutique hotel where - utility bills are paid, housekeeping is done, linen workfwashed and where one cooks only when one feels like. At these co-living spaces one can connect with like-minded people.

In June last year, the company filed for a provisional patent for its Workforce Management System that uses internal positioning systems which will allow them to efficiently manage their service teams including security and housekeeping.

StayAbode was co-founded in October 2016 by Viral Chhajer, Varun Bhalla and Devashish Dalmiya who have strong backgrounds in marketing, technology and finance having founded start-ups and previously worked at start-ups like Runnr, Treebo Hotels and Roadhouse Hostels.

Akatsuki is a world-leading mobile game developer and publisher based in Tokyo, Japan, and AET Fund is its corporate VC arm. The fund aims to contribute to the lifestyle change in India by leveraging Akatsuki’s expertise in entertainment. This is AET fund's first investment in India and with this they're now looking to make more investments in India.

[Top Image - www.facebook.com/stayabodecoliving/]

Online Wedding Planning Startup Shaadisaga Raises Funding From ah! Ventures, Anupam Mittal, Kunal Shah & Others

Shaadisaga, a Delhi based online wedding services marketplace, is taking the Indian wedding market by storm. This venture has recently closed an undisclosed amount of funding as a part of its Pre Series A round from ah! Ventures and other marquee investors. Industry stalwarts like Anupam Mittal (People Group), Kunal Shah & Sandeep Tandon (Freecharge.com), Dheeraj Jain (Redcliffe Capital), Rohit Chokhani (White Unicorn Ventures) along with other angel investors participated in this round.

Gone are the days when a wedding was merely an event in a person’s life, acknowledging the change in the living. It is soon becoming a milestone that marks the grandeur celebration of new beginnings and with each passing year, the show is becoming all the more interesting. From the pre-wedding photo shoots to inviting the gambolling celebrities, the wedding industry has witnessed a drastic change in the recent past and this is nothing but music to the ears of entrepreneurs like Himanshu Kapsime and Manish Garg, co-founders of Shaadisaga.

Shaadisaga, is an online platform that caters to the to-be-weds in terms of their wedding needs, focusing primarily on weddings ranging between INR 10 Lakhs to 1.5 crores. With the focus of being convenient and cost effective, Shaadisaga offers the couples and their families a host of wedding services, making itself a one stop shop solution for all the wedding needs. Started by Himanshu Kapsime and Manish Garg, IIT-Delhi graduates, Shaadisaga truly understands that today’s users expect high degrees of personalization and cross comparison is the key to conversions. With requirements being tailored at every step, the company, with a strong team of 25 employees, offers its users an option to choose from a pool of around 2500 best vendors, as per their requirements and hire them directly with price and quality assurance – The ShaadiSaga Seal of Trust.

Shaadisaga is the brainchild of two IIT Delhi graduates, Himanshu Kapsime and Manish Garg. Himanshu Kapsime, the CEO and Co-Founder of the organization is a 2012 graduate with prior experience in working with a US based MNC. He is actively responsible for managing the technological and product development portfolio for the company. Manish Garg, the COO and Co-Founder of the organization is a 2011 graduate with prior experience in working with an Indian startup unicorn. Apart from the co-founders, the company has a workforce of 10 employees with a permanent set up in Delhi.

[caption id="attachment_108800" align="aligncenter" width="700"] occasion dresses [/caption]

Commenting on the unique proposition of Shaadisaga, Co-Founder Himanshu Kapsime said, “At ShaadiSaga, we provide the best planning experience to couples. From idea & inspirations to hiring different service providers, we are focussed on making the entire process a piece of cake. Couples are able to gain the same level of trust with us as they do when they hire services through reference of their own friends and family members. Our team uses technology to essentially bring the offline wedding planning experience onto an online platform, while adding convenience and cost effectiveness.” Manish Garg, Co-founder of ShaadiSaga, continued, “ShaadiSaga is the best suited solution for couples to plan their wedding as they save around 20-30% of wedding budget and 2 months of planning time with us, while ensuring better quality and experience. We are currently 25 people strong team and will be adding more people as we expand in further cities.”

Commenting on the investee company, Anupam Mittal, Founder of Shaadi.com opined, “This is a high touch industry and a really tough business to crack. It will take a determined & passionate team with loads of perseverance. I saw the commitment in Himanshu & Manish, so decided to back them.” 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.”

The recent fund infusion will be utilized for increasing the base of partners associated with the platform and building technologies ensuring better customer experience, faster onboarding, smoother communication, and higher conversion rates.

Giving an investor’s perspective, Harshad Lahoti, Founder and CEO of ah! Ventures said, “Statistically the Indian wedding industry, valued at $40 billion, is proving to be one of the sturdiest in today’s market. Considering the high growth rate of 25-30% yoy, promising start-ups in this 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 focuses 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 is India's first full-spectrum (seed, angel & VC) investment network and platform comprising of over 800+ investors, including some of the renowned angels and early-stage VCs. Founded in 2010, ah! Ventures has systematically disrupted the early stage funding ecosystem of India through its innovative approach toward startup investing. First of its kind initiatives like the CLUB ah! platform, ah! Angels (India’s largest angel network), ah! Seeders and ah! VC networks (India’s first seed & VC investment networks), have brought together and integrated the previously segregated startup funding lifecycle, under one roof. CLUB ah! platform today has over 12500+ startups, 725 seed/angel investors and over 85 VCs & institutional investors, making it one of the largest platform of investors and startups. The network also last year secured its first profitable exit from Ed-tech venture Harness Handitouch within 2 years of its investment. ah! Ventures has till date pumped in close to INR 90 crores in over 29 investments spread across varied industries and domains.

ah! Ventures is in the process of closing another investment in the coming week.

Vebbler Raises $500K and Launches Social Camera App

Vebbler has launched a new photo app for groups, and aims to become the largest consumer-internet app coming out of India. It has also raised an angel round of USD 500,000 from a syndicate of 16 investors from different countries including India, Singapore, Hong Kong and the US, using the Let’s Venture platform. The lead investors include Anupam Mittal Founder & CEO of People Group, Sharad Sharma Co-Founder of iSpirt, Venkat Raju CEO of Kyron Accelerator, Pranav Pai & Siddarth Pai Founding Partners of 3one4 Capital and others.

Vebbler is a camera-first app designed to make sharing of photos easy between groups at night outs, vacations and celebrations. While people love taking photos together, the process of later sending them to each other is extremely cumbersome, and Vebbler promises to make that happen in one single-tap. With Vebbler, sending and receiving photos will become a breeze and no one will require begging and bugging friends to send photos via instant messaging apps, USB drives or cloud folders anymore. What’s more - one can express themselves on each photo through stunning filters, quick captions and candid reactions.

It has launched cross-platform app on Android and iOS (http://vblr.co). Vebbler has already garnered 50,000+ early sign-ups before the launch, with hundreds of colleges and students eagerly awaiting its launch.



The idea struck Sahil Bhagat, CEO and Founder, Vebbler when he was in college. He adds, “Vebbler was always built as a platform for people to share moments with private groups, or as we call it - Clubs. More recently, we shifted our focus to mobile. As an account of personal experience, during college, frequent night outs and spontaneous trips were very common, and we’d take hundreds of photos from our phones, only to undergo the mechanical and pain-staking process of sending our moments with each other afterward. As a result, we’d be left with an incomplete picture of the story most of the times. It is then that I realized that there had to be a better way for people to stitch together photos and videos of everyday moments of their lives.”

One of Vebbler’s lead investors, Anupam Mittal, Founder & CEO, People Group said, “The investment in Vebbler is a part of, perhaps, the most ambitious initiative by an Indian start-up to build a global consumer Tech Company. They are addressing a unique unarticulated need faced by most digital natives in the world and I am happy to partner them in this exciting journey.”

Vebbler’s Major USPS:

Camera-First: Instantly share photos with one or multiple clubs directly from the camera.

One-Time or On-Going: Perfect for one-time events like road trips and music concerts, or recurring moments like those your college friends and family.

Real-Time: A live timeline for each club that stitches together all photos taken through your friends’ phones as soon as they are captured.

Private: Vebbler is private, enabling you to share moments that you’d probably not share on other public platforms, allowing you to always be yourself - candid and real.

Community Focused: Vebbler isn’t a photo management app that organizes your photos based on location or facial recognition. They are a camera app that’s social by design, allowing people to instantly share photos with each other in real-time.

Another lead investor Sharad Sharma, Co-Founder iSprit said, “I think photos and videos are an increasingly powerful medium for communication that surpasses the limitations of language and geography, especially in a country like India. Vebbler has built a great platform to connect groups and provide them a powerful tool to share and express themselves in new ways and that is very exciting to me.”

“As early-stage investors, we enjoy working with founders of product companies because they prove, by personal example that the intersection of passion, capability, perseverance, and lateral thinking leads to impressive results. This is a young team that will try everything possible to work with their core users to arrive at the best solution, and that is a fantastic process to be a part of.” added Pranav Pai Founding Partner 3one4 Capital.

CEO of Kyron Accelerator Venkat Raju said, “Collaboration and "group app" has produced great winners (Whatsapp, Slack etc.) and still a very large, untapped market. Here comes Vebbler, a visual sharing app. Finally, a consumer internet product company out of India set to conquer the global market.”

You can simply download the Vebbler app, create a club with your gang, shoot photos and let Vebbler handle the rest! As club/group members begin capturing and sharing photos, a real-time feed gets instantaneously created, syncing the experiences from everyone’s camera. Vebbler stitches together the photos from different phones into one single timeline.

Vebbler was founded in June 2013 by Sahil Bhagat and is based in Bangalore. Vebbler is a new social camera for groups. Vebbler is building out the product in a way that makes it the default camera on the smartphone.

YumLane Raises Seed Round of Under $1M from Binny Bansal, Anupam Mittal and Others

In today’s fast-paced life people have no time to wait. They want everything in a jiffy, especially food options that can be consumed on the move. Identifying this need, YumLane has created a new ‘Food-to-go’ category to provide modern day busy Indians with reliable and quick food alternatives at affordable price points. Currently, there are hardly any options available for on-the-go hot snacking and meal that are quick-to-serve, affordable and most importantly hygienic to consume.  

YumLane, the digital FMCG Food startup has received the seed funding of just under USD 1 million by renowned angel investors. The investors in the current round include Binny Bansal, Anupam Mittal, Sachin Bhatia, Katalyzers (managed by SMILE Partners), Darius Pandole, Kunal Khattar, Rajnish Taneja and Dheeraj Jain.   

Founded by Hitesh Ahuja, Ex - VP from New Silk Route PE and MBA from SP Jain, the team includes Rueben Ghosh (Co-founder Product, Le Cordon Bleu), Rahul Kumar (Co-founder Tech, IIT-B) and Anirudh Mantri (VP, Ops IIT-B). The preservative free food that’s made with natural ingredients is ready to be consumed anywhere, anytime.

Talking about the fund raise, Hitesh says “We would like to make great food accessible to everyone, everywhere and leverage the deeply fragmented retail landscape our country offers. The Company plans to use the investment towards brand building, marketing initiatives and increasing the footprint.”

The branded FMCG market is expected to be USD 65B by 2020 as per BCG report in Dec 2015 titled ‘Reimagining FMCG in India’ and estimates suggest USD 15B market for street food and snacks.

India has 11 shops per 1000 people, with 14 million retailers it has the largest number of retailers in the world.  Out of these, approximately 9 million are FMCG retailers and the distribution network of established FMCG brands such as HUL, ITC, Coke ranges between 4 to 6 million retail points. YumLane aims to capture nearly the entire FMCG retail universe to make its offering easily accessible.

Also, in a market where people are increasingly growing conscious of untrustworthy street food and the boring fast food joints, a brand like YumLane might just get embraced whole heartedly.

Online Fashion Rental Platform Blinge Gets Funding Led By People Group's CEO Anupam Mittal

Mumbai-based Panoptic Solutions Pvt. Ltd. backed online fashion rental platform, Blinge has raised an undisclosed amount in its first round of funding led by Anupam Mittal, founder and CEO of People Group.

The funding round also saw participation from Livspace Co-founder and CEO Anuj Srivastava and Ankit Nagori, who quit Flipkart as chief business officer in February.

Founded in September 2015 by IITians Shashwat Gopal, Pooja Dubey and Shikhar Khanna, Blinge is a rental platform that provides designer wear, branded outfits and accessories on rent. The startup which claims to be catering to over 1,000 customers, follows a marketplace model and has a community of over 20 designers on its platform.

Gopal previously worked with Housing and Schlumberger, while Khanna was associated with Schlumberger. Dubey earlier worked with Google and PayPal.

Others startups operating in this space are STAGE 3, FlyRobe, LibeRent, Envoged and Zapyle. In December 2015, Delhi-based Technolour Dream Pants Pvt. Ltd. owned STAGE 3, had secured angel funding from a bunch of investors, including former AOL executive Nisha Sharma, Dalmia Bharat Group’s Puneet Dalmia and Stanford University professor Balaji Prabhakar. In August 2015, Envoged had received seed funding from Nijhawan Group’s Ankush Nijhawan, Mediology Software director Manish Dhingra and AMG Investment’s Gaurav Bhatnagar with participation from Former Canaan Partners’ MD Alok Mittal, Anant Goenka of Indian Express, Bollywood actor Jackky Bhagnani and Aspiring Minds CEO Himanshu Aggarwal.

Also, Bangalore-based online apparel rental platform Klozee closed its operations recently and last month, ethnic products marketplace Craftsvilla acqui-hired women clothing rental platform F2SO4.

Shaadi.com Bought About 25% Stake In Dating App Thrill In A Close To $1 Million Deal

Matrimonial portal Shaadi.com owner People Group has acquired about 25% stake in dating applications maker Thrill in a cash and stock deal valued at close to $1 million (about Rs 6 crore 13 lakhs). With this Mumbai-based people group has merged its dating platform Fropper with with Delhi-based Thrill Applications.

"We have combined our dating business Fropper with Thrill, making it the largest entity in the online dating space in India from users and revenue perspective," said Anupam Mittal, founder and chief executive of People Group.

Founded in 2012 by Americans Devin Serago and Josh Israel, who later relocated to Delhi to start the company Thrill which is a dating app available for iOS & Android users. Thrill, which claims to have had over 1,00,000 downloads of its app in India, will now get over six million members from Fropper.

"Fropper generates cash of over Rs 1.5 crore a year which we will plough back into growing both platforms," said Josh Israel, 28, a US-born Indian who moved to Delhi three years ago.

With the stake acquisition, Shaadi plans to reduce the product development life cycle for Thrill.

Thrill, which is solely focused on the Indian market, competes with other dating apps like Tinder and Krush. What makes Thrill different is that it is controlled by women. While men can apply to join, they can only begin using the app if the women on the network approve.

In May 2013, Thrill has raised an undisclosed amount in funding from Samir Bangara, a former managing director (digital) at the Walt Disney Company in India and currently the CEO of Qyuki.com, and Rajesh Kamat, CA Media’s Indian operations head, as well as from a couple of unnamed Singapore-based investors.

Zepo Raises an Undisclosed Amount From Shaadi.com's Anupam Mittal & Existing Investors

DIY ecommerce platform, Zepo, has secured an undisclosed amount, lead by Anupam Mittal, Founder and CEO of People Group, with participation of existing investor One97 Mobility Fund.

The Mumbai-based startup has been helping small businesses and first generation entrepreneurs make their first foray into online selling. Zepo provides a DIY platform for SMBs to easily start their own online stores without any tech knowledge prerequisite.

Zepo was founded by Nitin Purswani in August, 2011. Prior to Zepo, he had tried his hands at two businesses, one of which was in the apparel segment and the other one in technology. The good experience as a small business owner in the apparel industry and the learnings from running a technology company have equipped him to run and grow Zepo efficiently as well as understand the target market well.

From being an e-commerce platform to becoming a complete online selling solution, they now offer everything from integrated payment gateways to marketing support and Zepo's very own logistics solutions, ZePOST.

Zepo today has grown to a include a multitude of sellers and product categories, to the extent of being a favourite across first generation entrepreneurs in India! Being the preferred platform for popular businesses like Okaya Power Group, SoleThreads and Pebble India, Zepo has come to cater to more than 1200+ online stores.

Anupam Mittal, of Shaadi.com, said "Zepo has the potential to emerge as one of the few superstar SaaS companies from India. The market is huge and we are still at ground zero. With the funding round, we are expected to further consolidate the leadership in this category."

This year Zepo started 2 new offices, based out of Delhi and Bangalore, in May and June respectively. With the recent influx of funds, Zepo wants to aggressively concentrate on strengthening base in current markets as well as explore new overseas markets. At the same time, the idea is to exponentially grow the current sales team from a gang of 20 across 3 cities to 100 across 4 cities in next 1 year. The company has ambitious plans to position itself as the leading e-commerce platform providers in India while introducing new features and enhancements on Zepo.

Nitin, founder of Zepo.in was quoted talking about the potential that lay ahead for Zepo. "In the early 2000, during the telecom market boon, businesses realized the value & potential of telephone as a channel to do business & have leveraged it well. We see internet and e-commerce as the next big channels for small businesses to leverage & grow. In coming years, we foresee every business extensively using ecommerce & internet as a channel, just like a
telephone. There are 26 million SMBs in India & many more in the other markets. All players in the industry together have just touched the tip of the iceberg. The potential ahead is huge."