mycity4kids, an online platform that helps multi-tasking mothers manage the task of modern-day parenting better, has raised $3 million from SIDBI Venture Capital Limited and YourNest Angel Fund.
The platform has sharply Mum-focused content which includes the largest hyper-local discovery platform for kid’s resources and events, as well as the largest community of Mommy blogger and Parenting experts, in the country. With a million parents visiting the website every month, 2.5 mn page views, 700 bloggers and 75,000 service providers listed across 9 cities, mycity4kids is already the platform of choice for parents. There is plenty of room to grow the platform however, with over 50mn Mums online in the country and doubling every 3 years. Highlighting the intrinsic strength of this customer base, Sunil Goyal, CEO of YourNest Angel Fund said, “The size and value of the Mum demographic is what made us invest in mycity4kids 3 years back and we’re excited by their plans to become indispensable for every Mum”.
“Our expansion plans, in this phase, are geared towards becoming a daily-use product for every Mum”, said Vishal Gupta, CEO of mycity4kids. “You will see several mobile-led initiatives in that direction, starting with the recent launch of the mycity4kids Family Organizer app”. The first Family App in India has a Shared Calendar and To-Do list which allows Mums to organize the kids schedule and enlist support from the spouse/support-system in daily parenting. This apart, the app also enables Mums to discover resources and events for kids in the city and to learn from the shared experiences of other parent and expert blogs. The product pipeline includes a Mum-specific, group-chat platform which is integrated with the calendar and to-do list. “This is our way of ensuring that the job of parenting never overtakes the joy of parenting”, he added.
This round of funding will take care of the capital requirement for the next 24 months and the key milestones are to have 5mn Mums use the platform every day in the next 18 months and to achieve operational break-even in 12 months.
The company is confident of achieving these milestones because the quality content has led to a very low cost of customer acquisition, one of the more significant spends for any start-up. The delay in raising the Series A round has also led to a very high focus on monetization through 3 distinct revenue streams, amounting to Rs 4 crore in 2014-15. Of these the brand-sponsored blogging segment, is the fastest growing and contributes to 45% of its revenue, with an impressive client-list that includes Kellogg, Amazon, HUL, Dettol, P&G, Disney and Flipkart. With eMarketer predicting a rise in digital spends from 12% of total spends in 2014 to 23% in 2018, implying a 2.5 X growth in spends, mycity4kids is well positioned to leverage this.
Another 50% comes from small businesses advertising their services in the city while the rest comes from the ticketing of kids events. Expanding the sales team from 3 cities to 16 cities will help in further growing this revenue stream while kid’s events are poised to grow exponentially with events such as the largest Kids Educational Fair, Smart Kids Asia, coming to India for the first time later this month.
Mr Mahendra Lodha, Vice President and Company Secretary, SIDBI Venture Capital Limited, managing investments and exits out of its India Opportunities Fund, focussing mainly on growth capital needs of India’s growing and unlisted MSME’s operating in emerging sectors observes, “The Company has managed to achieve leadership status in this segment with limited resources and the team have demonstrated their belief through sheer persistence over the last 3 years. With the latest round of funding, they can build a financially viable model which we’re delighted to be a part of”.
