Excl: Online second-hand bookseller NoteMyBook raises seed funding

Mumbai-based NoteMyBook Pvt Ltd, the startup behind NoteMyBook.in, an online store for second-hand books for engineering students, has received an undisclosed sum in seed funding from Vivekanand Education Society's Institute of Technology (VESIT), an engineering college based out of the city, a top executive of the startup told VCCircle/Techcircle.in.

The funds will be used to expand its reach to all engineering colleges across Mumbai over the next six months and also to upgrade its servers, said Divyansh Saxena, co-founder of the startup.

NoteMyBook was started early this year by Saxena along with Vikramank Singh – both computer engineering students at VESIT. NoteMyBook is a platform that allows IIT students to buy and sell books. Students can register on the website as a buyer or a seller or both. They can then list the books they want to buy or sell. NoteMyBook then collects the books from sellers and then delivers them to buyers at their doorsteps.

"The books of engineering students are expensive and are used only for six months. However, existing sellers put forth lots of irrational conditions to buy them back from students after their courses are over. For buyers, there is a lot of difficulty in accessing all books in a single bookstore," said Saxena.

Buyers of second-hand books get 40 per cent discount on each book, while sellers earn 60 per cent of the value of maximum retail price (MRP). On every transaction, the seller/buyer needs to pay a service charge of Rs 10.

The firm claims that the service is currently available in 10 engineering colleges in Mumbai, capturing a market of more than 5,000 students.