FindYahan, marketplace for services and skills raises an Angel round from Microsoft India MD

FindYahan is an NCR based online marketplace for skills and services. Started in early 2013, the startup has just raised an angel round from led by Karan Bajwa (MD, Microsoft India) along with Parvesh Bareja (Director, HeliosPacks), Sunjay Kapur (MD, Sona Koyo Steering), and Amanpreet Bajaj (Ex Cofounder, Letsbuy.com). The funds are going to be used towards technology, team building and scaling up. The amount of funding has not been disclosed.

Founded by Rachit Mathur and Snehil Khanor, Findyahan was formally launched at the Websummit in Dublin on 30th November 2013 where it was given a platform to launch there under the Alpha Startup program. When we last covered the startup, more than 4500 registrations had taken place out of which close to 500 converted (phone numbers exchanged between service provider and seeker or a communication has been initiated). Now, Rachit claims to have over 4000 service providers and over 1,00,000 registered users with 20,000+ leads generated.

FidnYahan still has a way to go before it can boast about the traffic on site but their push on mobile seems to have been recognized. "Our app has been the number 1 app on google play store in the business category," says Rachit. The Play Store estimates downloads to be between 1000-5000.

Currently a team of 8, FindYahan finds competition in India from players like Skillkindle, Skillhippo and Flexing It but none of them seem to have a mobile app yet. Globally, skills marketplace SkillPages got acquired by Bark.com. Dublin-based Skillpages had more than 20 million customers and raised several rounds of investor and state funding over its lifetime (more than $40 million according to Bark.com founder Andrew Michael). But the company was finding it tough to generate enough revenue and hence, decided to go ahead with the acquisition.

For FindYahan, it is still pretty early days and with the internet penetration rising, it'll be interesting to see how the company proceeds in India. Talking of their vision, Rachit says, "We are working towards being the number 1 marketplace for services in india. a goto destination to find and hire reliable service providers locally."

Website: FindYahan