Digital marketing platform for restaurants MassBlurb raises angel funding

Mumbai-based Mass Blurb Pvt. Ltd, which runs an SaaS-based online marketing startup focused on restaurants MassBlurb, has raised an undisclosed amount in angel funding from members of LetsVenture and Mumbai Angels among other individual investors, it said on Thursday.

The startup will be utilising the funds for product development and expanding to a few international markets in six months, according to a press statement. MassBlurb currently has operations in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune.

The investment through LetsVenture, a platform that enables startups to obtain angel and seed funding, was led by Vikram Chachra, founding partner at Eight Innovative, among others. Abhimanyu Munjal, COO – Herofincorp, and Keshav Baljee, CEO - ZiP Rooms, led the deal for Mumbai Angels.

MassBlurb provides a suite of digital marketing solutions for restaurants to increase footfalls and improve customer acquisition numbers.

It currently serves close to 200 restaurants in India and aims to reach 1,000 restaurants by December. It recently signed up with multi-city F&B chains like The Beer Cafe, Impresario Group, Chaayos, etc.

The startup was founded by Sanket Shah and Pankit Chheda. Shah is an alumnus of Carnegie Mellon University and has worked with CouponDunia before while Chheda has studied at University of Michigan and co-founded a media startup called Visify previously.

"There is a huge potential for SMEs to leverage this online space for their benefit. It was a bit later on that we decided to shift our focus onto one vertical—i.e. food & beverage—to build good product depth within this sector and later venture out into other verticals," said Chheda.

MassBlurb competes with LimeTray and PetPooja among others in its business in India. Delhi-based LimeTray had raised an undisclosed amount of funding in its Series A round from Matrix Partners India and others last year.

Another firm which provides tech solutions and services to the hospitality industry is Hotelogix, which offers cloud-based SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions for small and mid-sized hospitality firms. Hotelogix is backed by Accel Partners, Blume Ventures, Saama Capital and Mumbai Angels.

International players in the business include Yodle (the US), Yext (the US) and 1001Menus (the UK).