The Wedding Brigade raises Rs 4 cr from Blume Ventures & others
The Wedding Brigade, (formerly Indear), has raised Rs 4 crore in a pre-Series A round of funding led by Blume Ventures, with the participation of four other angel investors. The portal, which calls itself a one-stop destination to discover and shop for Indian weddings, plans to invest the funding into product enhancement, service, growth activities and talent acquisition.
Launched in April 2014, the platform has recently introduced a services marketplace, which enables users to book venues, hair and make-up artists and mehendi artists online, or through its free expert concierge service.
The platform has been launched for users in Mumbai and Delhi, and will soon expand to other cities such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai as well as introduce new categories such as photographers, caterers and more.
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Sanna Vohra, Founder, The Wedding Brigade, spoke about changing the name of the company,
'The Wedding Brigade' represents a group of people - family, friends, vendors, and the company itself - coming together to make a dream wedding a reality. The name change reflects the company’s growth from a wedding inspiration website to a comprehensive wedding solutions portal where users can find inspiration, buy products, and book services for their weddings, all in one place.
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Sajid Fazalbhoy, Principal at Blume Ventures, mentioned that the second largest expense for an Indian family post purchase of a home is their children’s weddings. This enormous market opportunity is currently served by a few small fragmented players. The Wedding Brigade’s all-encompassing strategy makes it a very sought after company going forward.
The Indian wedding market, which is pegged at $40 billion, has witnessed the mushrooming of startups offering various kinds of solutions to the industry. In end-to-end wedding services, 7Vachan, BandBaajaa, Wedmegood, Shaadisaga, Bollywoodshaadis and many similar platforms are competing with each other. During September last year, Gurgaon-based Wedmegood raised Rs 2.7 crore from Indian Angel Network. Shaadisaga has also raised funds from Outbox Ventures.
According to experts, the industry is big enough to accommodate many players at a time. The emerging players make the industry more competitive and healthy.