The Indian Express Group has announced a undisclosed round of investments in emerging companies such as Envoged, PayMango India Private Limited, Mister Homecare Services Private Limited and Spiral Content Solutions Private Limited.
The group believes that investing on growing platforms is a natural extension of its strategic business model.
Anant Goenka, Director, The Indian Express (P) Limited, says: “Our first investment was in Chaldal – Bangladesh’s largest online grocery delivery company. Today, after tasting success in our own digital growth story, we at the Express are excited to be associated with such brilliant ideas and passionate entrepreneurs. These digital initiatives are promising and we believe they just need a little support to grow to their full potential.”
Gurgaon-based startup PayMango was founded by two IIT Delhi graduates in June and has already raised upwards of Rs 1 crore. Founders Gajinder Singh & Ram Singla had earlier launched a couple of mobile and marketplace plays.
“In the transformation of #DigitalIndia, The Indian Express is playing a pivotal role. The Indian Express through its quality coverage has become the most shared voice amongst the youth on various social networks. PayMango shares the same vision of Digital Empowerment of the Local Commerce by providing local stores an m-commerce platform to satisfy the demand of the consumers,” says Gajinder Singh, Founder & CEO PayMango.
“For the country to reap benefits of internet we need a Yumist, Groffer or UrbanClap in each locality. That’s how PayMango is providing local commerce wings to fly,” adds Goenka.
Mister Homecare Services Private Limited (mrhomecare.in) is a professional on-demand maintenance services organisation for consumers and businesses alike. “The Mr. Homecare family is very happy to have Indian Express on board as one of our investors. We look forward to engaging & working closely with the group as we look to build out a strong backend to service the aggregators in the on-demand home services space,” said Rushabh Vora Co- Founder & CEO.
Brothers Rushabh Vora and Sahil Vora launched the on-demand Home Services Company catering initially to Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore. Mr. Homecare is going to expand its operations to Delhi and other markets in the country soon.
Envoged is a “re-commerce” platform that allows owners of luxury goods like handbags, footwear and accessories to easily sell items that they no longer need. The platform takes care of collecting the items, consigning them, checking for authenticity, determining the ideal resale price and then finally helping sell them online.
“Envoged makes luxury fashion affordable for the aspirational consumers in India. It is a pleasure to have The Indian Express Group invest in us given their reach and connect with a huge class of Indian population aspiring to own luxury in their closets. We’re excited to learn how they’ve achieved their exponential and sustained digital growth over the past few years,” says founder Anandita Singh.
“India hasn’t even scratched the surface of the online luxury fashion market. We’re impressed with the passion and focus that this very young team brings to the table,” says Goenka.
Spiral Content Solutions Private Limited (scatter.solutions.com) is a content marketplace that curates Indian and international content and makes it available for brands to use on social media and other digital platforms.
Rajan Srinivasan, Founder & CEO, said he was very excited about the strategic investment by The Indian Express Group. “Our goal is to build tools and platforms to help brands become publishers. This relationship adds tremendous heft to us as we power ahead to build out a content marketplace of the highest quality,” he said.
PayMango India Pvt Ltd. (paymango.com), meanwhile, is a mobile marketplace platform for local businesses to manage and market their customer base.
The Express Group is one of India’s largest media conglomerates with a wide selection of publications and a network of offices spread across India. The Express Group has stood for excellence in journalism for over 80 years. Today, the group’s digital division reaches over 50 million unique users a month and its flagship indianexpress.com is ranked by comScore in India as the third largest english news site by unique visitors. With 32 national editions, 13 publication centers and 4 language dailies that reach over 19 million people daily. It has an illustrious line-up of publications like The Indian Express, The Financial Express, Loksatta, Lokprabha, Jansatta as well as various B2B magazines and events.