[Exclusive] Angel Fund India Quotient Invests in the online store for canines- Dogspot.in
Dogspot is an online portal where one can find everything related to dogs. Founded in 2007 by Rana Atheya along with wife Vizal Atheya, DogSpot is the most popular site under 'Pets' according to ComScore. In an announcement today, Anand Lunia founded angel fund, India Quotient has invested in DogSpot. The exact amount of funding hasn't been disclosed but India Quotient makes investment rounds south of $500k.
DogSpot was seed funded by Vikas Saxena, Global CEO Nimbuzz, Vaibhav Gadodia, VP Tech Nagarro and Ritesh Chauhan, Telecom Consultant. It received one more round from Early Stage Angels: Tanjai Ventures and Kibo Partners together (read their complete story here). DogSpot has been doing immensely well over the years and till now has delivered 15000 orders in more than 950 cities across India. Rana informed us that they have a throbbing community of more than 20,000 active pet lovers on DogSpot.in. They will be using the funds for product management. "Most of the stuff for dogs is imported right now, and there is no Brand per se in India. Dogspot will fill that void via a private label for many products that dog owners buy regularly," mentions Rana and Anand about utilizing the funds. They have already launched a few products under the name of PetSpot but further information wasn't revealed as it'd be a bit premature.
The eCommerce part of the business was started only in 2011 and the current revenue run rate is INR 2.4 Cr/year. An 18 member team, based out of Gurgaon, Dogspot was founded solely due to the founding teams love for dogs. Anand tells us that one has to be very passionate to do what Rana is doing. Rana did not start an eCommerce company opportunistically like others but did it as an outshoot to what he loved doing. He built a community of fellow dog lovers on Dogspot from where the eCommerce portal emerged. And this is the primary reason why India Quotient has backed Dogspot- the love for what they do. Although IQ doesn't expect itself cutting a cheque on eCommerce in the first half of 2013, they believe that there is still room for eCommerce .
Informing about the business, Rana says, "Just because of the size Delhi NCR is the biggest in terms of orders followed by Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkatta." However, it is interesting to note that tier 2 and tier 3 cities taken together are bigger than all metros. Dogspot has partnered with BlueDart, DelhiVery, RedSetGo, DTDC and Speed Post to handle logistics and depend a lot on surface logistics (on road).
Website: Dogspot
IndiaQuotient recently invested in Vellvette as well and this investment makes it two announcements from IQ in the week.