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Buyer centric BuyThePrice raises angel funding
By Eureka Bharali, SiliconIndia
Bangalore: Angel funding has seen a sudden surge in 2010, and right after the recent funding of authorSTREAM, Rajan Anandan, the Managing Director of Microsoft India has opened his purse string on an e-commerce portal BuyThePrice.com. The combined-investment saw Rehan Yar Khan, Sunil Kalra shelling out the cash along with Anand.
With the e-commerce tag, the first comparison that comes to mind are the thousands of the e-Bay and Groupon like sites but it's different. It's not about the monotonous way of scouting through the list of electronics to pick your favorite and the compare-contrast pricing. Rather, out of this vanilla ecommerce play, the founders Ranjith Boyanapalli, Tharachand Surydevara and Jagdish Kothapalle took the concept to a more buyer centric model - the more number of buyers, the lesser the price. While Boyanapalli was busy writing codes in one of the top IT services firm, he would often see request for group buying in their daily bulletins. If the group is large, the offer price automatically turns low. This struck him, considering the recent statistics that he saw - "1000 people buy Blackberry every day", which mostly will not be group buying rather individual buying, thus, they are losing on the price proposition. That's when the three founders took 'BuyThePrice' online.
They tied up with standard vendors for the tech gadgets, for instance, today among the best deal, the site cites the Apple iPod Nano which is originally priced at 
12,900, but has a group buying price of 8,949 and if the number of buyers reaches between 21 and 25 then the same iPod will be offered at 8,549. The gadgets are enlisted as per their algorithm in terms of market demand and latest gadget release, with expectations of more traction as per consultation with the vendor.
"The urge to create a brand, implement your ideas and make a difference was too high than being in our secured jobs. The company was initially funded through savings and friends who have supported us. To date we are debt free. I believe that we have raised capital at the right time now, given the growing customer base since launch, and the ambitious plans we have set for ourselves," says Ranjith. The main complexity is in terms of real time demand collation, mapped against supply prices and lowering the prices online. They want to expand the technology reach to make the portal more user centric. In January, the company will offer vendors a partner portal to enable them to add more details and update prices on the site, but Buytheprice will continue to have the sole responsibility of the product sale and delivery.
"We would invest in marketing, and like any marketer's dream, try to reach the most relevant prospect with the most personalized offer in the least cost possible. Here again, we rather would invest in new and evolving marketing channels," says Surydevara. And also, some of the fund will be utilized in setting up offices in Mumbai and Delhi, and attracting human talent as they plan to increase the current 13 member team to a 25 member team.
So, what generated the VC interest? "Indian consumers have no more apprehensions and hence consumer electronics will soar high like travel in e-commerce. The mobile handset business in India alone is in excess of $6 billion. Considering the electronics category BuyThePrice deal in, and their focus on brands, we are talking about a space that will be multi billion in the next five years," says Rajan Anandan.
12,900, but has a group buying price of 8,949 and if the number of buyers reaches between 21 and 25 then the same iPod will be offered at 8,549. The gadgets are enlisted as per their algorithm in terms of market demand and latest gadget release, with expectations of more traction as per consultation with the vendor.
"The urge to create a brand, implement your ideas and make a difference was too high than being in our secured jobs. The company was initially funded through savings and friends who have supported us. To date we are debt free. I believe that we have raised capital at the right time now, given the growing customer base since launch, and the ambitious plans we have set for ourselves," says Ranjith. The main complexity is in terms of real time demand collation, mapped against supply prices and lowering the prices online. They want to expand the technology reach to make the portal more user centric. In January, the company will offer vendors a partner portal to enable them to add more details and update prices on the site, but Buytheprice will continue to have the sole responsibility of the product sale and delivery.
"We would invest in marketing, and like any marketer's dream, try to reach the most relevant prospect with the most personalized offer in the least cost possible. Here again, we rather would invest in new and evolving marketing channels," says Surydevara. And also, some of the fund will be utilized in setting up offices in Mumbai and Delhi, and attracting human talent as they plan to increase the current 13 member team to a 25 member team.
So, what generated the VC interest? "Indian consumers have no more apprehensions and hence consumer electronics will soar high like travel in e-commerce. The mobile handset business in India alone is in excess of $6 billion. Considering the electronics category BuyThePrice deal in, and their focus on brands, we are talking about a space that will be multi billion in the next five years," says Rajan Anandan.