Indian Angel Network, a community of early-stage seed investors, has invested $1 million in Mumbai-based real estate group buying company Groffr.com in its series A funding for an undisclosed stake.
IAN member Krishna Jha will be on the board of the company.
Co-founded in 2010 by Sandeep Reddy and Vikhyat Srivastava (B-school peers and colleagues at a large financial services firm), Groffr helps customers get lucrative deals from builders in the primary real estate market. Buyers also get attractive discounts on cars and other high-value assets.
“The IAN funding will be used to expand Groffr’s presence to Delhi-NCR, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Indore, besides brand-building and doubling the current team size in the next one year,” said Srivastava. At present, the company operates in several cities including Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kochi and Nagpur.
According to Reddy, the company’s Web 2.0-enabled site Groffr.com has been able to create a fast-growing community of buyers. “They have a choice to subscribe to bulk deals negotiated by Groffr or form a group for purchasing an asset of their choice by inviting others looking for similar assets,” explained Reddy.
“In Groffr, Indian Angel Network has found a differentiated business idea in the real estate asset category, with large potential for savings for end-customers. The Engineer-MBA duo Sandeep Reddy and Vikhyat Srivastava bring valuable and relevant experience to the real estate sector,” added Jha.
Indian Angel Network invests in multiple sectors including IT products and services, BPO/KPO, retail, biotech and pharma, internet, media & entertainment, education, telecom and embedded domains. The company invests between $0.1 million and $1 million in its portfolio companies.