 "These former Microsoft execs made a business out of wedding photos")
Venkatesan Seshadri and Pranav Mehta, former Microsoft executives in Malaysia, knew they wanted to chase high value service markets. When the duo returned to India, they set up Flatpebble, a marketplace for photographers to sell pictures. Soon, they realised that was small fry. The bigger piece was in wedding assignments and other photo shoots.
Since there was no real online service for hiring photographers back in 2013, the duo decided to tweak their model to tap this space. Today, Seshadri revealed their start-up secured $600,000 from Indian Angel Network (IAN) led by Sanjay Jesrani and Subram Kapoor.
Flatpebble helps people view work samples of photographers, get detailed quotes and engage with them through a WhatsApp-esque tool before hiring. It claims to have added 2,500 photographers on the site so far.
Besides weddings, it receives assignments for baby, product and interior design photography. Additionally, it recently added a stylist category.
The photography business in India is driven by small players who lack know-how on business strategy. So Flatpebble has a data analytics tool to help its photographers make decisions on their pricing and packaging.
More From This Section
Flatpebble claims to have an annual gross revenue of Rs 10 million ($152,000). The largest transaction made on the platform is worth Rs 500,000. The start-up charges a commission of 6%-12% on every transaction.
The start-up also addresses the photography market’s opacity, according to Seshadri.
The funding will be used to innovate on the product, increase supply depth and add other services related to events and occasions.
Flatpebble competes with rival marketplace UrbanClap, which is significantly better armed after its $10 million funding round in June. Another rival, LocalOye, raised $5 million in April. Both players provide services like plumbers, electricians and appliance repairmen.
However, Flatpebble wants to provide specialised services related to events and special occasions.
This is an excerpt from Tech in Asia. You can read the full article here.