Sminq, a startup which aims to solve that age-old, ever frustrating problem of waiting, by taking physical queues online, has today raised $1 million in its seed round, led by Saama Capital and Blume Ventures, along with participation of Vaibhav Domkundwar.
As a part of this investment deal, Suresh Shanmugham, who is the managing director of Saama Capital will be joining the company’s board. The company has been founded by Shachin Bharadwaj and Sheldon Dsouza, who are also the founders of TastyKhana, acquired recently by Foodpanda.
Sminq, an abbreviation for ‘See Me In No Queue’, is a mobile app with an aim of reducing a pain point that most people encounter every now and then – waiting in queues – be it at a job interview or a restaurant.
Shachin Bharadwaj, co-founder & CEO says that,
We have been in the market for close to a year now, and see a very good product market fit for Sminq. We are already generating revenues and have seen great traction when it comes to user engagement with the app. We plan to use the funds to get more services on Sminq and also improve our technology offering.
Since its launch in July last year, the company is currently working with clinics in Pune and claims to have more than 40 paying doctors on its platform. It also claims that more than 100,000 users have used Sminq till date, which is an impressive number to achieve within an year of operation.
The application gives real time queue information to the user on their mobile phones, removing the need to be physically present to hold the spot. The company’s aim is to build an availability search engine, which will help users book appointments across businesses seamlessly.
Sminq has a separate app for vendors, called ‘Sminq for business’ which lets vendors update customers on when their turn is due and update them in case of delays. Currently only available to doctors, the company is charging a fee to get listed on the app. It has also recently introduced an option to pre-pay consultation and other fees through the app.
Sanjay Nath from Blume Ventures said,
Sminq’s technology solves a very fundamental problem – saving time and thus making people more efficient. The inefficiencies and hassles of “waiting and hoping” are particularly acute in India, but the market opportunity is global.
Sminq has started out with doctor appointments and scheduling, where-in it is in direct competition with platforms like Practo and Lybrate who are now eyeing rapid horizontal expansion alongside appointments. But, what might make Sminq stand-out is that it is trying to aggregate all the services which require you to wait in a queue, rather than focusing on a particular vertical.
