Gurgaon-based Wedmegood raises Rs 2.7 crore from Indian Angel Network
After one and a half years of the launch, Gurgaon-based wedding planner portal Wedmegood.com has raised Rs 2.7 crore in its seed funding round led by Hemant Kanakia and Alok Mittal of Indian Angel Network (IAN).
The venture will spend the funding back into the product. It will utilise a large part of the funding into technology as well as expanding to other cities and increasing supply on vendors. The platform is building a mobile app which will be launched in the next few months. Besides Delhi and Mumbai, it is planning to expand its operation in other cities such as Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Chennai.
“We are excited about the mentorship that we will receive from the lead investors; and we look forward to being one of the companies IAN can be proud of,” says Anand Shahani, Co-Founder, WedmeGood.
Founded in February 2014, Wedmegood is a wedding portal which claims to offer a comprehensive wedding service. At present, the company is associated with 3500+ vendors and connects more than a million customers with a variety of professionals – photographers, videographers, make-up artists, stylist, décor, and catering services, etc.
“Right from the idea to the execution stage, there is something to be discovered for everyone. The platform has a separate blog section which has unique content and solution to problems which are commonly faced by couples while planning their D-day. We strongly believe that this portal is a labour of love to ensure every couple to have their dream wedding a hassle-free affair,” said Mehak Shahani, another Co-Founder, Wedmegood.com.
The venture is expanding its business with the core team. Recently, Vishal Vasudeva and Mayank Gupta who lead the technology and business teams respectively have joined at the senior position in the venture.
On the investment, Hemant says, “In India, around USD 30 billion is spent annually on wedding. The enormous wedding market creates a large business opportunity in this segment; thus, associated industries are bound to propagate in the coming years. Wedmegood is an emerging platform catering to the wedding market. Starting from a blog platform to a full-fledged wedding portal, the platform has got potential and a promising founding team which will take the venture way ahead.”
With over 350+ industry veterans on the panel from across the globe, the ‘Indian Angel Network’ is one of the known business angel group. With investors located across 10 countries, IAN’s presence spans seven locations and has invested in startups from diverse industries/sectors.IAN looks at around 4,000 entrepreneurs each year, invested in 29 ventures in 2014 and has an overall portfolio of 100 odd companies in 16 sectors in seven countries.
Competition
In USD 30 billion wedding market, Wedmegood is not the sole player, but there are other players as well who are making the market more vibrant and competition tougher.
Shaadisaga and Bollywoodshaadis among several others are some of the platforms which are competing with each other working in this segment. Like other industries, this million dollar wedding industry is also evolving. It will be interesting to witness how the industry evolves and what new ideas disrupt the market.