Exclusive: Nightout planning app Happitoo raises angel funding

Mumbai-based startup FNB City Media Pvt Ltd, which runs a hyperlocal nightlife mobile app Happitoo, has raised Rs 50 lakh (nearly $77,000) in angel funding.

The company raised the money from a Mumbai-based angel investor who has over 25 years of experience in the entertainment industry and has earlier invested in this space as well as the larger F&B sector, Hemant Jain, director of Happitoo told VCCircle. However, the firm declined to disclose the name of the angel investor.

"We will utilise the fund to develop our product experience and marketing. We want Happitoo to be the de facto nightout planning destination for the young-at-heart looking for enjoying the best in class and relevant evening to midnight nightout experiences," said Jain.

Happitoo is a location based nightlife experience platform that enables users to explore, discover and socialize over food, drinks, dance, music, theme nights, buffets and real time offers at restaurants, pubs, clubs and lounges, all in a single swipe. The app is also integrated with Uber, to make the experience more comfortable and complete for its users.

The company is looking to raise more funds and is in an advanced stage of talks with a number of investors to raise nearly Rs 3 crore. "The soon-to-be infused capital will help us enrich metadata and invest in building the transaction stack," said Jain.

The startup was founded in September 2013 by Jain, who has over 18 years of experience in the mVAS and new media space and has earlier worked at companies such as Radio City, Hungama, Reliance WebWorld, and Mudra Communications among others.

Jain collaborated with Raviraj Meena, an IIT Bombay graduate, to launch this app in August this year. "Our app has already seen over 15,000 installations within the first 50 days of its launch," said Meena. He said that the app provides information on over 8000 nightspots spread across 15 cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Pune, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Jaipur, Ludhiana, Faridabad, Chandigarh, Indore and Chennai.

The startup also operates another app called Happy Hours which enables users to finds deals and events at a local restaurant or pub around them. Also, using the app, restaurants can regularly update their listings, deals, and details on special events, etc., as well as upload photos and videos for the same.

"We had launched the Happy Hours app in 2013, and having enjoyed that space, we realized the restaurants and the nightclubs had much more to offer and the patrons had much more to look forward to," said Jain, explaining the concept behind the app.

Happitoo competes with Guestlist in Mumbai and Delhi-based InstaBounce, besides a handful of others in this niche space.