Mumbai-based YouTellMe Media Pvt Ltd, the company behind the online price comparison and product discovery portal YouTellMe.com, has raised about $100,000 in funding from Dutch early-stage investment firm Bright Ventures. The capital is being used to build the product, support the tech development, and hire talent, its founder and CEO Shailendra D told VCCircle.
“Over the last year, our team has been working hard to build a smart and scalable platform that is now ready for rapid growthâ€, said Shailendra.
“A great timing for us because the internet penetration in India is already showing tremendous growth which is expected to make India the world’s second-largest internet using population by end of 2015 and we are at the beginning of an explosion of the e-commerce industry in India at this stage,†he added.
YouTellMe was founded early this year by Shailendra, who holds M Com and MBA degrees from Mumbai University. Prior to setting up YouTellMe, he worked in companies like Zee TV, Star Network, UTV and Disney India in various roles.
The portal helps users compare prices of products from multiple online stores in a large number of categories like mobile phones, electronics, home and kitchen, fashion and health and beauty. In addition to price comparison, the site works as a recommendation tool and review platform where users can rate and review products and online stores and help fellow shoppers make informed online buying decisions.
YouTellMe claims it is currently working with more than 30 online stores and has over 3 million products listed on its portal.
“The Indian e-commerce market is expected to grow at a rapid pace in the next five years and be a $50–70 billion industry by 2019; so we are actually still very early in the market,†said Shailendra. “The fact that similar players in this market have raised investments between $1-5 million only confirms the belief in the online comparison market in India,†he noted.
Shailendra also said that the company is now looking to raise additional funding from investors to support its growth strategy.
“Since our launch, we have seen great traction and interest from online users. This has only strengthened our confidence in becoming one of the leading price comparison sites in India in the next two-three years,†he continued.
In this segment, YouTellMe competes with Tiger Global-backed Zopper, Helion Venture Partners-backed MySmartPrice.com, and angels-backed PriceBag.com, among others.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
