On demand beauty marketplace VanityCube secures $250K from unnamed angels
On demand beauty and wellness space does not seem to be behind in attracting VCs and angel interest. After Vyomo, Delhi-based VanityCube has secured an undisclosed amount of funding from prominent angels. This is the first round of external funding for the six-month-old startup. The company will divert funds towards expansion, ramping up technology, operations, and marketing initiatives.
According to YourStory’s sources, the quantum of funding is in the range of $230K to 250K. VanityCube delivers on-demand professional and affordable beauty services at your doorstep as early as in 90 minutes across NCR region.
Operational only in Delhi (NCR), the company is currently processing 1,000 orders on a monthly basis with an average transaction size of Rs 800-1,000. Renu Bisht, Co-Founder, VanityCube, added,
Besides Delhi, we are also foraying in Mumbai market very soon.
The back story
The brainchild of Renu and Pragya Upadhyay, VanityCube was started with a personal need of getting affordable and quality beauty services due to time crunch. After identifying the pain-point, the duo collaborated and started working on VanityCube. Renu added, "We took a few months to put our website together and bring salon artists on board."
Renu is a computer science graduate from JNTU, Hyderabad, and a MBA from Symbiosis, Pune, while Pragya is the alumnus of St. Xavier’s, Mumbai, and XIMR, Mumbai.
Within six months, the company has added 60 people and now it’s a 70-member strong team. Besides web, we are also launching our mobile app by the end of this month and on-demand make-up and hairstyle features. VanityCube operates from 9 to 9 (AM to PM) and aims to target office going busy professionals, including housewives.
YourStory’s take
On demand beauty and wellness space is going through an exciting time in metros as office-going women seem to prefer services of startup like VanityCube. Besides food, health and beauty services are touted as one of the biggest opportunity. According to some industry estimates, the market size for beauty services pegs around $4.8 billion and it’s growing in India.
On an average, a woman spends anywhere between Rs 2000 and Rs 3000 on a monthly basis on basic beauty rituals. The company competes with Vyomo which recently ventured into on-demand salon segment along with Stayglad, Belita and Bulbul. With this angel round VanityCube will eye to expand to Mumbai and major metros. The proceeding will also help VanityCube to compete with Stayglad and Vyomo in a better way.
Over the past few months, on demand beauty & wellness vertical is making a lot of news and it would be interesting to watch how VanityCube evolves in times to come.