Parenting startups are becoming more and more verticalised with those in the parent advisory and infant health technology space mopping up much of the seed capital.
“In the past six months, we have seen over a dozen parenting startups emerge in two verticals. The advisory firms are creating products and in the infant healthcare sector, they are specifically connecting users to service providers. There are also players solely focusing on pregnancy,” said Ajay Ramasubramaniam , Director of Zone Startups India.
ParentLane, a social networking app that provides advice to mothers post pregnancy, has raised an undisclosed amount from former Flipkart executive Sujeet Kumar and other investors.
“There are a growing number of young parents who are looking for an easy platform to connect with peers, share experiences and gain knowledge during different stages of a child’s development,” said Vijay Kumar, Co-Founder of ParentLane.
ZenParent, which raised a $500,000 seed round from i2india Venture Factory, focuses on providing parental advice ranging from medical issues to nutrition, fitness and psychology.
The company partners with a range of Indian and international brands including Himalaya in India, working on a subscription-based model where they get revenues from the brand’s marketing budget.
“For the users, the service is free. We create advisory content for parents and gain revenues through brand partnerships. right now, 300,000 mothers are active, 80% of traction is from Indian metropolitan cities. But we are also seeing 20% traction from NRI’s,” said Sumit Dhar, CEO at ZenParent.
MyChild App recently partnered with healthcare service provider Practo where Practo’s API has been integrated into the MyChild App.
This enables users to book an appointment with a doctor. “To determine the developmental milestone at every age, we have for instance curated 11questions from the standard data of development prevalent in the medical book. Our algorithms are upto 90% accurate and can detect disorders in children aged 1to 24 months,” said Harsh Songra, Co-Founder of My Child app.
Ramasubramaniam says parenting startups are increasingly gaining traction among pregnant mothers and families in the top five metros. However, while theyhave verticalised and developed strong user acquisition strategies, strong business models are yet to be seen.
Harvard alumnus and Co-Founder of Baby Chakra, Naiyya Saggi, estimates the parenting startups industry — both products and services — to be worth $20 million in India. VCCEdge data reveals domestic investors have spent up to $10 million in seed rounds for parenting startups with half a dozen deals closed in 2016, most of whom are present in the advisory vertical.
Source: The Economic Times
