Merchandise printing marketplace Inkmonk raises $250K through LetsVenture

Chennai-based Imprimatur Printing Services Pvt Ltd, which runs an online marketplace for merchandise printing Inkmonk, has raised $250,000 in angel funding through equity crowd funding platform LetsVenture, in a round led by Freshdesk founder Girish Mathrubootham.

RedBus co-founder Phanindra Sama, Eight Capital's Vikram Chachra and other angel investors also participated in the round, as per a press statement.

Inkmonk will use the money raised to hire new staffers, expand its range of products and for upping sales and marketing spend, the company said.

Founded in March 2014 by Isaac John Wesley and Surya Shankar, Inkmonk provides an online platform that lists printers who specialise in promotional products such as button badges, full coloured mugs, stickers and t-shirts.

Prior to co-founding Inkmonk, Wesley worked with Interviewstreet. He has a bachelor in science in design and visual communications from Madras Christian College, Chennai. A BTech in electrical and electronics engineering from National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, Shankar had co-founded Karpeer, an e-learning portal for engineering students. Before that, he worked with Amazon and McAfee Software India.

"Customers still face the problem of which printer to go during a requirement. India has roughly 250,000 print vendors and from our experience only a very few print vendors in each city are quality conscious and keep up proper customer deadlines," said Wesley.

"We are bringing these print vendors out to customers in a transparent marketplace with real time rates. We are also building products to help businesses in direct mail solutions and inventory management and API's for merchandise," he added.

Inkmonk would compete with the likes of Printland, Printvenue, Printbindaas and other players for a chunk of the growing market for online sourcing of printing solutions. Printland Digital India Pvt Ltd, that runs online printing solutions startup Printland.in, recently raised an undisclosed amount of funding from SIDBI Venture Capital Ltd

Set up with a seed capital of Rs 300,000, LetsVenture brings investors and startups on a single platform. In addition to helping startups raise investment, LetsVenture also enables their business plan to be reviewed by experts. It also facilitates connects with mentors. Nearly $10 million has been committed on LetsVenture's platform across 42 deals.