IDC's Jaideep Mehta backs beauty and wellness marketplace Stylofie

Jaideep Mehta, South Asia MD of research firm IDC, has invested an undisclosed amount in beauty and wellness marketplace Stylofie.

As part of the transaction, Mehta will join Stylofie's board of directors, the startup said in a statement.

Stylofie will launch its services in Delhi-NCR by the end of this month, after which it will raise Series A funding.

In November 2015, Stylofie had raised $250,000 (about Rs 1.65 crore) in seed funding from Hong Kong-based Swastika Company Ltd. It later acquired personal care app Hyve.

"We have seen an unprecedented growth pattern in the last few months and we are aggressively looking to expand pan-India," said Prateek Agarwal, co-founder and CEO of Stylofie.

The Gurgaon-based startup, operated by Soulmo Solutions Pvt Ltd, was founded in September 2015 by Saurav Dey and Agarwal. With its website and mobile app, Stylofie provides a platform to consumers to discover and compare salons and spas, check reviews, and make bookings and payments.

"While most startups in this space are promoting the salon-at-home concept, I can see that Stylofie is set to disrupt the way consumption of beauty and wellness happens in the current model, which is a significantly larger opportunity," said IDC's Mehta. He said beauty and wellness is a $10.5 billion category, growing upwards of 20 per cent year-on-year and with increasing affluence and beauty consciousness in India, this rate is unlikely to slacken.

India's beauty and wellness industry has seen a lot of investor action lately. A PricewaterhouseCoopers report estimates the sector to be worth Rs 1 lakh crore this year. Several online players that facilitate listings, discovery and booking of wellness services have raised external capital.

This month, Dubai-based Mazkara FZ LLC, which runs beauty and wellness startup Mazkara, raised $1 million (around Rs 6.8 crore) in seed funding from early-stage investor Dunamis Ventures Pte Ltd.

In November 2015, Bangalore-based Gomalon Technology Ventures Pvt Ltd, which runs listing platform for wellness services Gomalon, had acquired spa booking service bookmyspa.in for about Rs 12 crore ($1.8 million).

Bangalore-based Vyomo Pte Ltd, which runs a beauty and wellness platform, had raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding led by TaxiForSure co-founder Aprameya Radhakrishna in June 2015.