Sminq has announced the closure of their seed round of $1 million led by venture funds Saama Capital and Blume Ventures with participation from angel investor Vaibhav Domkundwar of micro-venture firm Better, Inc.
Sminq is solving the problem of waiting by taking physical queues online. Sminq gives you real time queue information on your mobile while you wait, making your wait 100% transparent. It removes the need to be physically present to hold your spot. Their vision is to build an availability search engine, which will help users book appointments across businesses.
Sminq was formed in July 2015, and team consists of Santhosh, Sheldon & Shachin who had earlier co-founded TastyKhana. They exited the business after being acquired by Foodpanda in 2014.
Sminq is currently working with clinics and has 40+ paying doctors using their app in Pune. They currently charge doctors a fee to be listed on Sminq and drive 6000+ user bookings a month to their clients.
Shachin Bharadwaj, co-founder & CEO said, “We have been in the market for close to year now, and see a very good product market fit for Sminq. We are already generating revenues and have seen great traction when it comes to user engagement with the app. We plan to use the funds to get more services on Sminq and also improve our technology offering.”
"Sminq is chasing an important vision of delivering availability data like never before which will fundamentally change the way we consume local services", said Vaibhav Domkundwar, an early backer and strategic investor.
Suresh Shanmugham - Cofounder and Managing Partner, Saama Capital, who also joins the board at Sminq said “The Sminq team and its technology have successfully proven how waiting in physical queues can be eliminated in the medical consulting space. Extension of this value-added service in other prospective areas will open up vast business opportunities for Sminq.”
Sanjay Nath from Blume Ventures feels “Sminq's technology solves a very fundamental problem - saving time and thus making people more efficient. The inefficiencies and hassles of "waiting and hoping" are particularly acute in India, but the market opportunity is global. We've known Shachin and team right from their Tastykhana days. We're excited about Sminq as we like to back passionate founders solving large-market problems.”
