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The Indian Angel Network (IAN) is one of the most influential angel networks in the world today with 400+ global citizen members drawn from across the spectrum of industries and investment appetites.
IAN has always been able to use its engaged member network to identify highly differentiated start-ups at an early stage, deploy collective wisdom in distilling the extensive lead base into finding the gems among the Indian and global start-up community and closely mentor start-ups by providing quality time and business connections.
The IAN investment in Flatpebble, India’s premier marketplace for services is a fine example of the strength of this process.
A Microsoft Venture incubatee company founded by Venky and Pranav, both formerly of Microsoft, Flatpebble approached IAN and was welcomed through an efficient and friendly vetting process which has now culminated in an investment of $600,000 by the network.
Flatpebble was different from the start. Operating in the rapidly growing services marketplace sector, the start-up was a clear winner, deploying a winning combination of a powerful and scalable technology platform, with its deep understanding of the nuances of the target services – photography and videography.
Having built an impressive and curated portfolio of over 2,500 photographers, Venky and his team had been smart and frugal in their approach to customer acquisition, winning strong traction within a few months of the firm going live. It was very interesting to hear that Flatpebble was also approached by global photographers from France, Malaysia and Thailand who were keen to bid for the destination wedding market from India.
As we engaged with the founders to dive deep into the model, we realised that while the proven market for wedding photography was already booming, the model had extraordinary potential to scale across expanding segments like product photography, which was the sine qua non for every business aspiring to build its online presence. Customers are acutely aware that high quality photos and videos can take the business to a different level of appeal.
The potential market size in its initial target segment in India is over $3 billion and the company is well poised to add on a breadth of related services over the next 12 months which will help consolidate its leadership position and scale its presence pan India and globally.
We are very bullish about the IAN investment in Flatpebble and believe that the great combination of an outstanding team, expanding market and scalable technology platform will ensure that they will stand out as one of the global success stories from the IAN stable.
Sanjay Jesrani is an IAN investor who has led this round of investment in Flatpebble. He is also the Founder & CEO of Go North Ventures.
