GSF company PlayCez raises a funding round from Mukul Singhal and Rajesh Sawhney

PlayCez is a local events discovery app founded by Delhi based entrepreneur, Ashwani Gaur. In an announcement today, Playcez raised six digit (USD) seed round, led by angel investors Mukul Singhal (SAIF Partners) and Rajesh Sawhney (GSF). Playcez was also a part of the GSF Accelerator that is founded by Rajesh Sawhney.

The funding will aid the young Delhi based team in penetrating a rising class of smartphone users in India. While investment in social consumer apps may be on the downturn in more established mobile markets like the US, the investors expect rising activity in emerging markets like India.

PlayCez takes an approach to events discovery that monitors social media and checkin services with proprietary algorithms. By identifying locations (bars, restaurants, night clubs, even dentist offices) in which consumer traffic is highest, it recommends events and activities that are most popular in a user’s respective city. Users can search events and activities by distance and time. "Our initial version has about 40,000 unique user a month. The new version is a pivot from earlier version to focus on a specific vertical, which we figure out from our initial set of users," says Ashwani about the traction.

While SAIF’s Singhal will provide strategic support particularly around the company’s financial model, GSF’s Rajesh Sawhney will prepare the company to extend beyond the Indian market. Also taking confidence in Playcez is Ixigo founder Aloke Bajpai, who has closely mentored the team in its product development since the time of launch.

Currently Ashwani has 3 other developers in the team which forms a team of 4 techies. "We are hiring more people in Business Development to extend the core team," he says.

Website: PlayCez