Gingercrush, an on-demand platform for customising licensed products, has raised a little under $1 million in a pre-Series A round led by Saha Fund.
Existing investor TV Mohandas Pai also participated in the round along with Mumbai Angels, Zia Mody of AZB Partners, Ananda Kallugadde of NeoAngels and Rakesh Desai and Rakesh Malhotra of SAR Group.
In a press release, the company said that Ankita Vashistha, the founder of Saha Fund, has joined the board as part of the transaction.
Pranav Pai from the family office of Mohandas Pai has also joined the advisory board of Gingercrush, operated by Vadodara-based Swadesh Essfil Pvt Ltd.
A spokesperson for Gingercrush told Techcircle.in that the funds will be used for scaling up operations, hiring across verticals and upgrading the technology backbone of the company.
“Our aim is to make branded product customisation the most looked up industry in India. The merchandising and product customisation arena is the next big thing after mainstream retail in India,†said Saumya Nidhi, chief operating officer at Gingercrush.
Founded in January 2015 by Rajvi Makol and Saumya Nidhi, Gingercrush is an on-demand retail platform where consumers can buy or customise products such as T-shirts, mugs, mobile/tablet covers and mouse pads from a pool of branded licensed imagery to fit their personal style. Customers can choose from these images or create their own designs.
Gingercrush has tied up with about 100 brands and counts Disney, Barbie, Star Wars, Fido-Dido and Marvel among the brands on its network.
In November last year, Gingercrush raised an undisclosed amount in angel funding from Mohandas Pai, chairman of venture capital firm Aarin Capital and educational and training services provider Manipal Global Education Services
Gingercrush will compete with the likes of VoxPop, Vistaprint and Pune-based Truelytics eComm Pvt Ltd, which operates icustommadeit.com in the customised merchandise space. However, Gingercrush also does brand customisation apart from customised merchandise.
