Big news coming in for the on-demand fashion startups in India. Vyomo, the Rocket Internet backed Salon-aggregation platform has reportedly sold of an undisclosed, controlling stake to Indian beauty salon network, Naturals. The deal is speculated to be in the vicinity of $15 Million, with no word on the percentage of stake sold.
According to deal terms, Vyomo will rebrand itself to Naturals@Home, making it pretty clear how Naturals wishes to penetrate into Indian households riding on Vyomo’s aggregated network. And while the rebranding takes place, Vyomo’s management will remain the same with a decent representation on the board seat of this combined entity.
The funds raised from the deal will be used to develop technology and expand aggressively to meet customer demand.
Talking about this deal, Vyomo founder Abhinav Khare said,
We get access to 7,500 Naturals stylists at almost no incremental cost with this deal. We were lacking in the salon experience but post this deal, we will have the capacity be able to service 25,000 customers a day.
In June of last year, the company raised its seed funding from YouWeCan Ventures, a VC firm founded by Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh, along with the participation of Aprameya Radhakrishna, co-founder of the now Ola-owned TaxiForSure.
Founded by Abhinav Khare and Poonam Marwah with an aim to create a a one stop platform for beauty professionals to manage and grow their business through a smartphone, and for customers to book appointments instantly through their mobile, Vyomo is a Mobile Beauty and Wellness Platform that utilizes Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics to simplify the way beauty & wellness services are requested, offered and rendered.
The startup’s mobile app is available for Android and iOS users. It claims to have over 1500 salons and spas across Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. Vyomo is aiming to bring more than 1 million stylists on the platform by 2017 and improve their earnings by allowing millions of customers to instantly access and book a hassle free Salon and Spa experience.
CK Kumaravel, chief executive of Naturals said,
We have been salon specialists but we realised that on demand services are playing a very important role in the beauty space now. Since we ourselves don’t understand the back end and how the tech space works, the deal with Vyomo opens up a completely new opportunity for us.
The deal packs in a lot of positives for Vyomo’s early investors. For Rocket Internet, this will mark yet another major exit from an Indian company — and a much needed one at that — considering how Jabong and other similar investments into India have fare. Investment in Vyomo was Rocket Internet’s second major bet on Indian startups, post its Jabong spectacle.
