ZanDeal, a stealth-mode Sino-Indian online marketing analytics startup, has raised $150,000 (around Rs 96 lakh) from US-based investor Sean Chan, a company executive told VCCircle.
The company will use the capital to develop its tech and for marketing initiatives so that it can accelerate the process to launch its services by the end of July, said Lucy Meihan Lin, co-founder and chief executive of ZanDeal.
Founded by Lin and Ming Chou in April this year, ZanDeal is incorporated as Hongkong Deyin Network Technology Co. Ltd and has a 25-people strong workforce, of which 16 are part of its development team in Kochi. Its operations team works out of Bangalore. The company has a sales team in China.
ZanDeal is developing a web interface and mobile app for Chinese manufacturers of consumer-tech, such as wearables and smart kitchen appliances, to perform India-focused marketing research.
The company is designing the website and mobile app in such a way that products from its clients can be showcased extensively, like on an e-commerce portal. It would feature images and outline specifications of the devices to make it easy for people to review and share feedback online. ZanDeal would also offer the products to a number of users in the Indian market for free in return for a comprehensive review. The company will then collate the feedback and reviews in a detailed report that will be sent to its clients.
“India is a huge market for Chinese products. On one hand, ZanDeal would act as a wishlist kind of a portal for Indian consumers because they are going to see medium-range tech-enabled devices that are currently not available in India. On the other hand, it gives Chinese companies a clear picture on what Indian consumers expect from the feedback so that they can tweak and improve the products for this very promising market,†Lin said.
The startup already has a network of about 20 Chinese manufacturers involved in building smartphones, smartwatches, sunglasses, smart home solutions, and home and kitchen devices. Though the company does not sell products currently, Lin has not ruled out sales opportunities in the future.
Recent investments made by Chinese investors and venture capital firms include re-commerce startup Cashify, which on Thursday secured a Series A round of funding from China-based Shunwei Capital and existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, M&S Partners and Blume Ventures.
Last month, Bangalore- and Beijing-based ForeverShop, a mobile platform connecting individual and small-time sellers with customers, had raised $300,000 seed funding from Chinese early-stage investor 91maker.com.