In an industry with a market size over $2 billion in India, the growth of Evibe, an online platform to find and book party packages is not surprising. Started by the husband-wife duo of B Anjaneyulu Reddy and Swathi Bavanaka, both 27, who met on Skype, the idea was born when they had a lot of trouble while planning their wedding. The couple faced a lot of hassles while searching for vendors. This was multiplied by the fact that they had to plan the wedding from Bangalore while it was to happen in Hyderabad. When they realised that this was a common struggle for people who were organising events, the couple saw a great business opportunity. And Evibe was born Consumers get to explore the latest trends in the city, choose different sets of packages, transparent pricing information along with their portfolios, see their past work and reviews.
The tech part was easy. After all, Anji has an MSc from BITS Pilani and worked as a senior software developer with Knolskape Solutions, while Swathi has an MS in Computer Science from University of Memphis. Mid-2013 saw them quitting their jobs, and six months of planning and an alpha-version release later, the duo chose ‘birthday parties’ as their niche. Evibe was launched on February 2014 and has six employees as of now. “Quitting our jobs was easy as we were deeply involved with the idea and used to brainstorm even when on a date. Our startup experience was limited,” says Anji.
With not a rupee spent on marketing, they started generating revenue from day one. With seed funding from friends and family of around Rs 10 lakh, they pull in more than `8 lakh a month.Currently, Evibe has more than 200 party planners and has planned over 350 parties in Bangalore.
— mathew.maniamkot@gmail.com