Chennai-based Eventjini.com raises over $130K in angel funding

Chennai-based Eventus Software Services Pvt Ltd, the company which owns and operates Eventjini.com, an event listing, promotion and ticketing platform, has raised over $130,000 (Rs 78.7 lakh) in angel funding from city-based HNIs who run multiple businesses, including manufacturing, real estate, gem and jewellery, among others.

The fund will be used over the next six months to expand the company's presence to all major metros in India, as well as for international expansion to Singapore.

"We plan to use this funding to further accelerate our growth by bringing more innovative tools and methodologies. Our plans include mobile strategy and a major technology push to solve real-world problems of event organisers like counterfeit tickets," said Sandilya Venkatesh, CEO and managing director, Eventjini.

"The company is valued at over Rs 8 crore (over $1.32 million) and the angel investors have a combined stake of more than 10 per cent," said Sriram Sekhar, CEO of S.M.A.R.T Advisors, which acted as the financial advisors to Eventjini.

He declined to disclose the exact investment or the equity stake holding of the investors but back-of-the envelope calculations suggest it would be around Rs 80 lakh to Rs 1 crore.

Founded last year, the company claims to have marketed more than 450 events to date. It competes with Explara.com, another event ticketing and discovery site run by Pune-based Signature Technologies Pvt Ltd. The company has operations in Pune, Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi and has served event organisers from India, the US, the UK, South Africa, Singapore and Philippines.

Explara also raised an undisclosed amount in funding about a year ago from Harvard Business School (HBS) Alumni Angels, Srijan Capital and Blume Ventures. Google India MD Rajan Anandan and angel investor Kishore Warrier also participated in the round in their personal capacity.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)