February 9 2016, 15.45 PM IST || Pocket News Alert
February, 2016 India: Weddingz.in, India’s largest wedding market place has raised pre-Series A fund from Sixth Sense Ventures, a consumer-centric fund. Sixth Sense Ventures has previously invested in several successful businesses including Grab, Purplle, Vini Cosmetics, Gowardhan to name a few. Weddingz.in also raised over $1 million in seed capital in December 2015 from a group of angel investors led by Ambit Capital.
A Pioneer in the space of Online Wedding Planning in India, Weddingz.in is a one-stop technology-enabled platform that simplifies the process of finding and booking services at the best prices. It aims to fill an obvious gap in the fragmented weddings and events industry – that of finding the right vendor at the right price. With a listing of more than 2000 wedding venues and 2000 wedding vendors across 10 locations in India, it is the largest warehouse of wedding service providers. Presently organizing more than 150 weddings every month, Weddingz.in is the largest wedding company in India andplans to reach out to top 20 cities by the end of 2016 and 100 cities by 2017-end. The company, within one year of its launch, boasts of a 100+ stellar team that includes IIT/IIM/Wharton alumni, all working with the single goal of making dream weddings hassle-free and affordable.
Commenting on this, Sandeep Lodha, Founder and CEO, Weddingz.in said,“The wedding industry in India is pegged at US$40bn, with 10m weddings taking place annually. The market is growing at 25% per year. However, it remains to be extremely fragmented with 100K vendors in top 20 cities. Weddingz.in aims to fill an obvious gap in the fragmented weddings and events industry – that of finding the right vendor at the right price. Further with a change in the age at which people are getting married, younger generation is taking control and planning their own weddings. “Convenience” becomes a key factor for these time-starved couples that are looking for a one-stop solution for their entire Wedding needs.He further added, “We will be using these funds for technology/automation and team expansion. We are also looking at getting into newer categories like décor, honeymoon packages etc. and enhance our customers experience by technology development like making virtual tours of venues on website possible”.
“Sixth Sense is India’s first “consumer-centric” domestic venture capital. We partner with first generation entrepreneurs’ creating disruption in traditionally large spaces within the Indian consumption landscape. Essentially, we look to back a smart-ass team with a kick-ass product in a big ass market. The first four investments from the fund (Ethos, CrossRoads, Grab, JHS Svendgard) and our earlier personal investments (One97, Parag Milk, Vini Cosmetics, BVG, Infinite Analytics, etc.) reflect our core consumer-centric passion and focus. Weddingz.in is the 5th investment from our Fund”, shared Swati Mehra, Partner, Investments, Sixth Sense Ventures. “At Sixth Sense we believe India is witnessing a wave of sophistication across all consumer centric industries. The change from “unorganized” to “organized”, “loose” to “packed”, “unbranded” to “branded” is evident. Against this backdrop, we believe transformation of the US$40bn Indian Wedding industry is in the coming! With time-starved young couples now at the helm of wedding planning, convenience and sophistication is the need of the hour. Further young couples are becoming the critical decision makers for their weddings, with over 40% of weddings in Tier-I cities being planned by the bride and groom. We see “convenience” as an extremely strong value proposition for these time starved couples. Convenience of a one-stop shop for all wedding related services “at the best rates”, makes Weddingz.in an ideal platform for couples.Further sophistication and transparency to all stakeholders, disrupts the way the industry is structured. While on one hand venues/vendors are facing capacity utilization issues, the consumers are in turn left wanting for a hassle free booking experience for their wedding services. We see Weddingz.in enabling the marriage between vendors and consumers, thereby creating a strong value proposition for itself.”
“We see the need for a “credible platform” in the fragmented and unorganized weddings space. Sandeep, a first generation entrepreneur, comes with a strong passion of creating the largest Wedding Company in India. His strong pedigree (Ex-Bain and Disney), solid team and aggression instilled confidence in us. The business model is unique and differentiated in comparison to the other listing platforms. Weddingz.in fits well into Sixth Sense investment thesis of “first generation entrepreneurs” creating disruption in spaces with large potential (US$40bn industry!)”, she further added.
