Flatpebble raises $600K in seed funding from IAN

Flatpebble, an online marketplace for pre-packed services from photographers, videographers and stylists, has secured $600,000 in seed funding from Indian Angel Network (IAN).

The startup, which is run by Hyderabad-based TechClove Technologies Pvt Ltd, will use the money to fuel product innovation, increase supply network and expand into new service categories, as per a press statement.

Sanjay Jesrani and Subram Kapoor, who led this round by IAN, will join the board of Flatpebble.

"The local services space is a $50 billion opportunity and an extremely difficult problem to solve. The Flatpebble team has crafted a scalable solution to this problem, which is resonating with customers and service providers. At IAN, we look forward to backing ventures with a disruptive approach to daily problems. We are confident that Flatpebble will rapidly achieve a leadership position in the target markets both in India and globally," Jesrani and Kapoor said in the statement.

Flatpebble was founded by ex-Microsoft employees Venkatesan Seshadri and Pranav Mehta in December 2013.

Currently, Flatpebble allows users to hire quality photographers, videographers, stylists and other service providers. It has over 2,500 photographers and other service providers on board.

"This investment from IAN is a validation of our approach and the effectiveness of our platform. The IAN team has been supportive, ensuring that due-diligence and other processes were smooth, with emphasis on guiding and encouraging us," said Seshadri, who is also CEO of Flatpebble.

Companies operating local services on a marketplace model have been attracting a lot of investor attention. Fixy, a Mumbai-based startup that provides maintenance services on demand, recently raised seed funding from members of VentureNursery, an angel-backed accelerator for startups

Other companies that raised funding include UrbanClap (Accel & Saif Partners), LocalOye (Tiger Global and Lightspeed), Qyk (Zishaan Hayath, co-founder, Toppr.com; Abhishek Goyal, co-founder, Tracxn.com; and Delhivery co-founder Sahil Barua), Near.in (led by Anupam Mittal, CEO of People Group, and Manish Vij of Smile Vun Group), FindYahan (led by Karan Bajwa, managing director of Microsoft India), TaskBob (Orios Venture Partners & Mayfield India) and UrbanPro.com (Nirvana Ventures).