Exclusive: Wellness startup Gomalon raises second round of seed funding

Bangalore-based wellness services startup Gomalon Technology Ventures Pvt. Ltd has raised $100,000 (around Rs 68 lakh) in a second round of seed funding from a company that makes essential oils, natural food colours and spice extracts, Anil Kumar, co-founder, Gomalon told Techcircle.

Kumar declined to name the company and only said that it has operations in Asia and Europe.

The new capital will be used to develop Gomalon's technology back-end, acquire talent, and expand its marketing initiatives. The startup also plans to raise its pre-Series A round of funding in the next five months.

Prior to this funding round, the company had raised $100,000 from a clutch of angel investors.

The company has recently launched its GoSpa offering, an on-demand spa bookings service, with real time management of slots. The standardised services (with personalised shower kit and disposable toiletries) are priced at Rs 999, which can be paid through PayU, PayZapp, and MobiKwik.

The services are currently available in 20 locations in Bangalore, and can be accessed through its Android app.

In November last year, Gomalon had acquired spa booking service bookmyspa.in for about Rs 12 crore ($1.8 million), to launch its deals section for spas and salons.

Gomalon was founded by Anil Kumar in February 2015 as a discovery and booking platform for wellness centres. Sanjay Ramakrishnan, former head of marketing, Myntra, and Sudarsan Rao, founder, venture advisory firm Iyara Ventures, are advisors to Gomalon.

Prior to starting Gomalon, Kumar was the Bangalore sales head at AIG Global Investment Group. He has also worked with Sundaram BNP Paribas AMC.

India's beauty and wellness industry has seen a lot of interest from investors recently. A PricewaterhouseCoopers report estimates the country's beauty and wellness sector at Rs 1 lakh crore this year. Several online players that facilitate listings, discovery and booking of wellness services, have raised external capital. Besides, horizontal home services startups such as Housejoy and UrbanClap also offer similar services.

In April this year, salon chain Naturals is investing $15 million in Vyomo Pte. Ltd, a Bangalore-based mobile marketplace for beauty and wellness services.

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