Parenting social discovery platform BabyChakra gets funding from RoundGlass

BabyChakra, which connects parents to services and products for babies, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding in its Series A round from RoundGlass Partners, a Seattle-based investor.

The capital will be used for product development, hiring and for creating localised content, the company said in a statement.

BabyChakra is an online community that provides information on conception, pregnancy, birth and early childhood for parents and parents-to-be. The site also provides reviews of more than 25,000 maternity and childcare services. Currently, the community comprises 500,000 mothers seeking advice and support on the platform, the company claims.

"Supporting the health and wellness of mothers and babies is the foundation of building a healthy future. BabyChakra has created a powerful online resource for parents....digital health solutions can have a profound impact on India," said

Infomoko Technology Pvt. Ltd, which runs BabyChakra, was launched in February 2015 by Naiyya Saggi, a Harvard Business School alumnus, who has previously worked at consultancy firm McKinsey and Public Health Foundation of India. The founding team also includes Mitesh Karia, a FMS Delhi alumnus, who earlier worked with HSBC, and Mohit Kumar, an IIT Delhi alumnus. Kumar is also co-founder of DezignUp, an online community for home designers.

"Parenting can be isolating and many first-time parents need guidance. We saw a void for an online resource for childcare and parenting and decided to build the platform," said Naiyya Saggi, chief executive of BabyChakra.

In June 2015, the company had raised its seed round of investment from Mumbai Angels, the Singapore Angel network and Arihant Patni.

Child care and parenting segment has been witnessing strong investor interest over the last few months.

Last week, online baby products retailer FirstCry, run by Brainbees Solutions Pvt. Ltd, agreed to acquire auto-to-software conglomerate Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd's baby-care business BabyOye in a cash-and-stock deal, while also raising $34 million (Rs 226 crore) from the Mahindra Group, Switzerland-based private equity fund Adveq, Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan and existing investors including IDG Ventures India.

Last month, parenting social network TinyStep, run by WeHive Technologies Pvt. Ltd, raised a fresh round of funding from existing investor Flipkart.

In May, social networking mobile app for baby-care and parenting ParentLane, which is run by Bangalore-based Discovery Info Labs Pvt. Ltd, raised an undisclosed amount in angel funding from a clutch of investors led by Sujeet Kumar, former president (operations), Flipkart.

Prior to that, AddoDoc Technologies Pvt Ltd, which runs mobile app Babygogo that connects parents with child healthcare experts, raised Rs 2 crore ($300,000) in a seed funding round led by angel investor Rajul Garg.

BabyBerry, BabyCenter, Parentune, ZenParent, ParentEdge, KIDSS (Kid Social Shell) and MyCity4Kids are among the players in the space.