Exclusive: Parenting website Kidsstoppress.com raises angel funding

Mumbai-based parenting and baby care startup Kidsstoppress.com has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from angel investors including Karan Bhagat, founder chief executive of IIFL Wealth.

The company will use the capital to strengthen its technology infrastructure and team. It will also expand its services to more cities across the country, Mansi Zaveri, founder and chief executive of Kidsstoppress, told Techcircle.

Launched in 2011, Kidsstoppress (KSP), owned and operated by Kidsstoppress Media Pvt Ltd, connects parents to brands, services, and events for children through its online platform. Currently, it offers its services across Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune.

In addition to the website, it manages a host of properties such as KSP Code, a loyalty and exclusive access card for parents to buy kids products and services from its partnering brands; KSP Awards, a popular choice awards for brands and services in the parenting and baby care segment; KSP Kids Book Club; KSP TV, a platform that discusses topics of relevance to parents and KSP Radio, a digital radio station that shares bite size news for kids.

"The parenting and baby care segment in India is a very large opportunity and is worth close to $25 billion. At the same time, it is also fragmented and very local in terms of language, culture and geography. At Kidsstoppress.com, we have built the groundwork to address this large opportunity across segments including content and market place," Zaveri said.

She said the startup is also running a beta trial of a curated marketplace model for parenting and kid products, helping parents discover products on the Kidsstoppress platform. "Kidsstoppress is working on a number of new initiatives including a curated market place model and strengthening the technology backbone to provide a very personalised experience to the parents," Zaveri said.

The delivery of the products discovered on the platform will be managed by the marketplaces they are sourced from.

Apart from the commission it plans to charge for the upcoming curated marketplace services, Zaveri said the startup enjoys a host of other revenue streams including advertising, engagement and subscription. It also generates revenue from its partnerships with global brands in the baby care and parenting segment including Unilever, P&G, Himalaya Babycare and Johnsons India, among others.

In the parenting space, several startups have come up in India over the last few years, including BabyCenter, BabyChakra, Parentune, ZenParent, ParentEdge, KIDSS (Kid Social Shell) and MyCity4Kids.

A few startups in the baby-care and parenting space have also raised funding recently. Last month, Bengaluru-based parenting social network TinyStep raised a fresh round of funding from ecommerce major Flipkart.

In May, social networking mobile app for baby-care and parenting ParentLane had raised an undisclosed amount in angel funding from a clutch of investors led by Sujeet Kumar, former president (operations), Flipkart.

In March, mobile app Babygogo that connects parents with child healthcare experts, had raised Rs 2 crore ($300,000) in a seed funding round led by angel investor Rajul Garg .

Prior to that, Bengaluru-based parenting app BabyBerry had secured $1 million (Rs 6.8 crore) in angel funding from industrialist Nitin Bagmane and a few undisclosed investors.