On-demand beauty services startup Stayglad raises angel funding

Bengaluru-based marketplace for beauty services Glow Prime Technologies Pvt Ltd, which operates under the brand name Stayglad, has raised an undisclosed amount in angel funding from Tracxn Labs, Delhivery co-founder Sahil Barua and other investors.

Stayglad, which is currently operational in Benguluru, plans to utilise the money to augment its footprint in other cities and to launch a mobile app, the company said in a press statement.

Stayglad is a platform that enables customers to get beauty, styling and 'get ready' services at their doorsteps. Stayglad can help customers find verified, trained, experienced and certified beauty service professionals who will use standardised procedures, as per the press statement.

"The idea came to me when I found my wife struggling with sari draping for a family function. It is not easy to find someone trusted to get you ready and be able to find them quickly when you need the service. When we dug deeper into the problem we figured there is a significant gap in the market," said Prateek Jain, co-founder of Stayglad.

"We are changing the way customers access beauty and get ready quick services at short notice and paving the way for beauty professionals to maximise their skills with no overhead costs," said Jain.

Stayglad was founded a few months ago by IIT Kharagpur alumni Prateek Jain, Shashank Gupta and Kavish Desai, who have worked with companies such as Adobe, Amazon, Urban Touch, Heinz India and Flipkart.

Sahil Barua, angel investor and co-founder Delhivery, said: "India's beauty services industry is set to grow over five times by 2020. The biggest advantage of an on-demand beauty services marketplace model like Stayglad is that the business leverages technology to bypass the overhead of running a brick and mortar storefront, and reaches out to a much wider audience in comparison to a salon whose reach is limited to its geography."

Recently, Chennai-based beauty and wellness company Syona Cosmetics recently raised an undisclosed amount from Chennai Angels. Besides, another online beauty and personal care retailer, Purplle.com (Manash Lifestyle Pvt Ltd) also secured an undisclosed amount of funding from Mumbai-based IvyCap Ventures.

Data analytics firm Tracxn, which had recently raised $10 million from Flipkart founders Sachin and Binny Bansal, claims to have 7,000 startups and close to 21,000 companies in the US registered with its database.