Delhi-based curated city and lifestyle guide Little Black Book has raised $1 million (Rs 6.5 crore) led by Blume Ventures along with its existing investors IDG Ventures and Indian Angel Network.
The startup will use the capital to expand to new cities and scale its revenue streams through integrated offerings to consumers and local businesses, it said in a statement.
Founded in 2012 by Suchita Salwan and Dhruv Mathur, Little Black Book (LBB) started as an online discovery platform for food, events, lifestyle, culture, travel and shopping. The service focuses on curated and recommended listings in the city. LBB uses community driven content as a medium to drive an engaged audience to local enterprises, places and experiences. It partners with brands looking to engage with a local audience.
“International markets with a millennial audience is going to be the next big opportunity for us, along with closing the loop in between information, intent and transaction within our product itself,†the founders said.
The company had raised $1.2 million from IDG Ventures India and Indian Angel Network (IAN) in March last year.
In 2015, it had secured a seed investment of $150,000 from a group of angel investors including Rajan Anandan and Sachin Bhatia.
The firm’s revenues mainly come from advertisement and lead generation. It claims to reach out to over two million users every month across eight markets in India and offer over 30,000 recommendations across over 18 categories.
“What attracted us to LBB was its dynamically curated approach to discovery – its integrated platform, augmented by a team of curators, has kept its loyal customer base sticky and growing at a fast pace. Further, it has been able to execute innovative and targeted campaigns for marquee brands, creating a recurring revenue stream,†said Sanjay Nath, managing partner at Blume Ventures.
Others in this space include Shouut, TownTrot, Nearify, EventsHigh and GoYaNo. Nightlife discovery apps such as OUWT, Happitoo and Instabounce also list events, lounges, clubs and gigs, besides offering exclusive deals and table booking to customers.