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Meet The 8 Best Nightlife Discovery Startups in India
GoYaNo is getting around 300 bookings every day and making a healthy revenue. Their revenue has grown 5 times in last 3 months. ? Livspace Announces Plan to Create 30,000 ‘Design Entrepreneurs’ in India
Nightlife is a collective term for entertainment that is available and generally more popular from the late evening into the early hours of the morning. It may include pubs, bars, nightclubs, parties, live music, concerts, cabarets, theatre, cinemas, shows, and some restaurants. These venues often require a cover charge for admission. Nightlife entertainment is often more adult-oriented than daytime entertainment. Nowadays, youngsters love to hangouts in night instead of day. They are more into nightlights. People who prefer to be active during the night-time are called night owls. Here are some nightlife startups which will help you to make or plan your nights better. 1. GoYaNo
GoYaNo was founded in October 2015 by Gaurav Singh and Nitin Sharma. The startup helps customers discover & book fun events & activities around them. It has been built as a comprehensive social platform with profiles for customers, artists, restaurant owners & event managers to enable interaction & transactions between them. To start with they have partnered with 500+ premium restaurants and event managers in Delhi / NCR for listing their events & offers on GoYaNo platform & receiving at least 10 requests every day for listings. It also give artists a platform to interact with their fans and potential event planners. They get all kinds of queries from customers on their "Open Chat" platform or on call from request of corporate team parties, birthday parties, bachelor’s party, family get together to everything else you can imagine. Live bands in restaurants & EDM DJ playing live are the most common requests. GoYaNo is live for public for around 6 months now and have 15,000+ organic mobile app downloads, 1 lakh monthly visitors on website. They are getting around 300 bookings every day and making a healthy revenue. Their revenue has grown 5 times in last 3 months. The app is available for Android as well as iOS users. The company monetizes by following steps:
- Commission on every person going to a restaurant / event after booking an event or availing offer on GoYaNo platform. - They also consult & curate special marketing strategies to increase event footfall. - They curate special events like GoYaNo Beer Pong Challenge. - They are also opening up 2 more revenue channels within next 3 months. - They have curated 3 Beer Pong events in the past which saw huge interest amongst relevant audience. 2. Happitoo
Happitoo was founded in August 2015 by Raviraj Meena and Hemant Jain. The startup is a nightlife navigator, for the millennials (21-35years), to discover their ‘kind of place’ and reserve a perfect night out basis the companion, occasion, taste, & budget. It also enables users to socialize over food, drinks, music & live entertainment….ALL IN REAL TIME. It has 35000+ mobile app downloads. The app is currently present on Android only but soon will release for iOS users. The company has around 21,482 registered users on its platform. They have ranked amongst Top 5 global apps on Google Play Store, keyword search – “Best Nightlife app”. They have tie-ups with 20+ nightlife events as Digital Partner, responsible for amplification and driving footfalls. Partnership & Integration with UBER in place. Happitoo aims to be the ‘Open Table’ of nightlife. The plan is to become a one-stop nightlife discovery & reservation destination across the globe, connecting pubs, event companies, artists, brands, and consumers….all in Real-time. 3. StrollUp
StrollUp was founded in January 2014 by Abhishek Goel (IIT-D), Ankur Gupta (DCE) and Siddharth Kumar (DCE). Strollup is a chatbot to find best places and activities in your city. The bot is powered with 1000s of places and 200+ weekly events to suggest you best things to do. It can answer all outing related queries and even makes a reservation for you. You can even ask questions like “what to do this weekend”, “what can I do in cp”. It can give you photos or directions for a place too. The company has launched their chatbot in March 2016 for Delhi and Bangalore. Currently, 12000 people are chatting every month and they get 600+ bookings each month. They have increased this booking conversion from 0.5% to 5% in 4 months. They charge commissions from their partner places for getting them customers. StrollUp’s app is available for Android users currently. 4. Townista
Founded in May 2014 by Paras Jain and Snehal Nimje, Townista is a platform to explore and book interesting things to do. It has approximately 90, 000 users, 60, 000 mobile app downloads. Townists was 1 of 7 startups to be accelerated by GSF accelerator - 2015 batch and also 1 of the 12 startups of Google Startup Launchpad program June 2015. The app is available for Android as well as iOS users. Their future plans is to go deeper in each city, covering complete leisure segment and monetization model is Ticket booking and promotions. 5. My Party Venue
Founded in April 2015 by Nishant Nandan Singh & Saurabh Chawla, My Party Venue is  an end-to-end booking platform seeking to bridge the gap between venue managers and people looking out for party venues for their social and corporate events, where they can qualify, compare & book a party venue within their budget. They have 500+ registered users, 50+ corporate clients. They charge Commission from venue owners for every successful booking. 6. Partiko
Founded in September 2015 by Amanjot Malhotra, Partiko App is a last minute event discovery and booking marketplace for the spontaneous buying users in the metropolitan cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore etc. Currently event discovery and categorization is quite random in the metropolitan cities and even if a person is able to find the events they have to make lot of effort to book their place in the event. As the time in hand is becoming less and less for everyone, Partiko has simplified the process of discovering and booking events. They have 15000 downloads out of which 3000 are active downloads. They are rated 4.8/5.0 on Play store by more than 1700 users. Their plans for future are introducing ticketing of events of all the categories, as well launching web-app and iOS app. Monetization model is based on commission, they charge a commission per ticket. Currently its app is available for Android users only. 7. Instabounce
Founded in December 2014 by Harman sawhney, Instabounce app provides a highly-curated list of selected last-minute events for everyone at discounted (or even free) prices. From a wine –lover, to a simple party hopper or a food connoisseur, everyone can find an event of their choice and make last minute. The app is currently aiming the users in Delhi/NCR. Currently the app has about 15,000 downloads. The founder says that alone Delhi has an audience of 100,000-125,000 consumers who would be interested in such an app. On a monthly basis, the company is doing over 4000+ bookings. The event organizers are charged on a commission basis whereas the app is free for users, depending upon the no. of users who make bookings through the app. The app is available for Android as well as iOS users. 8. Nearify
Founded in December 2012 by Mayank Kumar, Saurav Singh and Vivek Srivastava, Nearify is an event discovery platform that gathers the information on a large set of events such as parties, music festivals, shows, workshops, concerts, meet-ups and makes the list available to users. Currently, Nearify is focused on events discovery. In future, it also plans to introduce ticketing facility for paid events. Currently the app has about 100,000 downloads and is rated as 4.4 stars by 2,296 people. The app is available for Android as well as iOS users. Share this article:
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Meet The 8 Best Nightlife Discovery Startups in India

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Happitoo founders Hemant Jain (left) and Raviraj Meena
Mumbai-based FNB City Media Pvt. Ltd, operator of hyperlocal nightlife mobile app Happitoo, has suspended operations after finding it difficult to raise fresh investment and achieve positive unit economics, co-founder Hemant Jain told TechCircle. “We couldn’t scale up and reach a minimum threshold of downloads. Whatever funds we had dried up in building the product for a larger geography,” said Jain, who has joined as the business head of digital operations and senior executive vice president at Lokmat Media Pvt. Ltd.
Happitoo is one of several location-based nightlife aggregator apps such as Instabounce, Partiko, OUWT and   Guestlist that sprung up over the past couple of years or so. These apps list events and gigs on their platform and enable users to explore offers at restaurants, pubs and clubs to attract a young urban population looking for hangout spots. Some of these apps, including Happitoo, also raised funding last year. But not a single one has raised a follow-on round this year, as investors tighthen their purse strings and look for profitability at startups instead of focusing on revenue growth. Happitoo last year raised Rs 50 lakh (nearly $77,000) in angel funding . Jain, who founded Happitoo in September 2013 along with Ravi Raj Meena, said that raising funds on time is critical for nightlife aggregators as it is an operation-intensive business. Jain has about 18 years of experience in the mobile value-added services segment and new media. He had earlier worked at companies such as Radio City, Hungama, Reliance WebWorld and Mudra Communications. Co-founder Meena is an IIT Bombay graduate. He has now joined Kuwait-based gaming events company Fikra Ltd as chief technology officer. Jain also said that they are in talks with a couple of people who are interested in the value that could be created out of Happitoo. He believes there is an opportunity in nightlife aggregation but said the segment faces several challenges. “It is a little ahead of time from a consumer’s perspective and is a tough category to operate in,” he said. “At one end you have deals and discounts platform for restaurants and pubs. And on the other, there are players like BookMyShow that also provide nightlife options.”
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What went wrong with nightlife discovery app Happitoo

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Checking out what your favourite hangout spot has to offer on a Saturday night has just got easier with a slew of nightlife discovery apps listing events, lounges, clubs, gastropubs, gigs and many more. What’s more they also offer exclusive deals, booking of tables, and even tell the customer the kind of music being played at a disco. From Happitoo to OUWT to Instabounce, Partiko, Brisky, Towntrot, Nearify, Guestlistand many more, these apps have been catching the attention of the 20-35 age group, their target audience. A few have even managed to get investors to pump in funds. Ltd, recently raised $150,000 from a group of undisclosed investors. Happitoo, run by FNB City Media Pvt Ltd, also raised a seed round of $77,000 from Mumbai-based unnamed angel investors. Instabounce, meanwhile, was selected for a Rs 10 lakh funding at IIT Mumbai’s startup showcase early this year. Sobering truth
However, as these apps expand beyond their home markets, they face the risk of stepping on each other’s toes, and thereby undercutting each other. Most of them are running after the same set of youngsters in the metros and big cities and ultimately list the same clubs, discos and restaurants with a few variations. That sobering truth is something the founders of these startups also realise. “There is a lot of information available online and enough platforms and venues to plan your night, just the way you want it to be,” says Prateek Lal, co-founder of nightlife discovery app, OUWT. “Customers tend to be aware about the events around, unless they are new to a city. So the future of such apps remains to be tested so far, as the nightlife business is entirely based on word of mouth,” says angel investor Ajeet Khurana. The challenge is to get updated information and many venues are not up-to-date with the technology, he points out. Standing out in the crowd
Offering a unique customer experience is the only way to ensure that the party never stops. OUWT, for instance, compares prices of alcohol available at venues located in the vicinity of the looked-up destination. It also allows users to search for hangout destinations based on the type of music played. “We even tell our users what dress code is to be followed,” says Lal. The GPS-enabled app lists about 300 venues from Mumbai. With 4000 registered users, the app has been accessed 16,000-20,000 times in the last two months, says the startup. OUWT recently started operations in Pune, where it competes with Brisky which provides a comprehensive listing of events, offers, karaoke, ladies nights, DJ Night, sport screenings, etc. From entry fees to cover charges, happy hours and all other wallet-friendly offers, Brisky consolidates everything in one app. Starting off with Happy Hour India which gave real-time happy hour listings and buffet offers available, FNB City Media has pivoted itself to become a nightlife discovery app, collating data based on consumer behaviour on the app and then throwing up curated recommendations. The app is also Uber-integrated to help customers catch a cab home. “As per the mood and occasion keyed in by the customer, the app curates information to offer an amazing nightlife experience in six easy steps,” says Hemant Jain, co-founder, Happitoo. It also gives real-time deals and offers. Happitoo is present in 15 cities — Mumbai, Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Pune, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Jaipur, Ludhiana, Faridabad, Chandigarh, Indore and Chennai. A commission-based business model is what these nightlife aggregators are banking on. Besides the 10-12 per cent commission on transaction value charged from the merchants listed on the app, a listing fee also helps shore up the revenue. Some of them are looking at selling the user database and charging merchants for providing information based on user analytics. According to retail consultancy Technopak, in 2014 the Indian food and service market was estimated at Rs 272,750 crore and is projected to touch Rs 505,000 crore by 2020. The organised PBCL (Pub, Bar, Club & Lounge) market was estimated at Rs 9,875 crore in 2014, and is expected to grow 10 per cent annually to reach Rs 17,850 crore by 2020. Harman Singh Sawhney, who co-founded Splurge Entertainment Pvt Ltd, which runs Instabounce, in December 2014 with his Amity University batch mate Ananth Venkatesh, is focussing on the unsold inventories of nightclubs and bars, with tailormade discounts to entice customers. “Instabounce is solving the pain points of both the customer and the event owner, as the nightclub can sell its unsold inventory and the customer can get it at a discounted price on the app. Such deals and exclusive offers will give users one extra reason to use Instabounce,” he says. Sawhney, who was earlier working with table reservation platform Dine Out, says 90 per cent of reservations at any event happens at the last moment. “So there was a lot of unsold inventory and we wanted to organise it. With Instabounce, users can not only book the event real-time but also get the confirmation in seconds.”
“Our business is getting good response and reservations through Instabounce, as people are able to book events on last minute as well,” says Anuj Verma, operations manager at Club BW, a nightclub at The Suryaa, a New Delhi-based hotel, said. Club BW gets 30-35 people daily through Instabounce. Instabounce has tied up with 40 event venues in the Delhi-NCR region. With 15000 installs, the company claims to be doing 4000-plus reservations a month, of which 70 per cent are repeat customers. The app receives 120-130 visitors daily. Partiko, founded by Amanjot Malhotra, an IIT Roorkee alumnus, on the other hand, strives to be the one-stop destination for any event happening in a city. Delhi-NCR based Partiko Services Pvt Ltd ,which owns and operates Partiko, not only focuses on nightlife but also has diversified itself in different categories and has dedicated options for startup events, college events, food events, marathons and more. With 4300 downloads, Malhotra claims that there are 100 active users on a daily basis on the app. Sawhney of Instabounce believes it is a winner-take-all market. “The competition is really tight in the nightlife space and those who will be able to provide a good experience to the customer will be the winners,” he says. Dr Aniruddha Malpani, lead investor at Mumbai Angels, who has invested in Instabounce, however, says there is a need for such startups in the otherwise unorganised sector. “The nightlife discovery apps are making the experience curated and more personal for a customer,” he says.

The party has just started, say nightlife aggregators

by Sujata Sangwan Leave a Reply
OUWT allows users to discover venues such as lounges, bars, nightclubs, gastropubs and restaurants
OUWT, a GPS-enabled app which is available for Android and iOS users, connects users to the place of their choice when they want to go out for partying. The startup has raised $150,000 (around Rs 1 crore) from a group of undisclosed angel investors to expand its operations and venture into other cities. It competes with firms like Guestlist and Happitoo. Last month,  Happitoo raised a seed round of $77,000 from a Mumbai-based unnamed angel investor to develop its product experience and for marketing. Mumbai-based OUWT was founded by Prateek Lal, Shreyas Rajagopal and Yuvraj Bhalla. Lal was earlier working at DBS Bank. Shreyas worked with Kotak Private Equity and Bhalla was a senior project leader at Trine Games. It allows users to discover venues such as lounges, bars, nightclubs, gastropubs and restaurants – be it food, music, timings or the occasion it is suited for. The app provides the hot spots which are trending on that particular day as well as helps users to search for hangout destinations based on the type of music played. It uses data-points as well as a social engagement model to help users find places that suit their taste using a host of filters. Using the app, people can receive live feed and get relevant information like what is happening around depending on their budget and mood and can compare prices of alcohol available at venue. Currently, it is operational in Mumbai and lists about 300 venues. By December-end, it will start operations in Pune and Bangalore. The startup claims that the app has crossed 3,000 downloads so far. Some of the venues listed on its platform paying for its services and the company’s also plans to have an additional revenue stream via social networking features, geofencing and advertising through tie-ups with brands. Other players operating in the space are Instabounce, Partiko and DoPlay among others. These niche apps are also competing with restaurant discovery apps like Zomato and Dineout. Since their download numbers are still small in comparison to the existing firms in this space, it’s too early to evaluate which one would emerge out among the rest.

OUWT Raises $150K to Simplify Nightlife Discovery in India

by Sujata Sangwan Leave a Reply
OUWT, a GPS-enabled app which is available for Android and iOS users, connects users to the place of their choice when they want to go out for partying. OUWT allows users to discover venues such as lounges, bars, nightclubs, gastropubs and restaurants, Shown Above: OUWT’s Co-Founders (L-R) – Yuvraj, Shrey and Prateek
The startup has raised $150,000 (around Rs 1 crore) from a group of undisclosed angel investors to expand its operations and venture into other cities. It competes with firms like Guestlist and Happitoo. Last month,  Happitoo raised a seed round of $77,000 from a Mumbai-based unnamed angel investor to develop its product experience and for marketing. Mumbai-based OUWT was founded by Prateek Lal, Shreyas Rajagopal and Yuvraj Bhalla. Lal was earlier working at DBS Bank. Shreyas worked with Kotak Private Equity and Bhalla was a senior project leader at Trine Games. It allows users to discover venues such as lounges, bars, nightclubs, gastropubs and restaurants – be it food, music, timings or the occasion it is suited for. The app provides the hot spots which are trending on that particular day as well as helps users to search for hangout destinations based on the type of music played. It uses data-points as well as a social engagement model to help users find places that suit their taste using a host of filters. Using the app, people can receive live feed and get relevant information like what is happening around depending on their budget and mood and can compare prices of alcohol available at venue. Currently, it is operational in Mumbai and lists about 300 venues. By December-end, it will start operations in Pune and Bangalore. The startup claims that the app has crossed 3,000 downloads so far. Some of the venues listed on its platform paying for its services and the company’s also plans to have an additional revenue stream via social networking features, geofencing and advertising through tie-ups with brands. Other players operating in the space are Instabounce, Partiko and DoPlay among others. These niche apps are also competing with restaurant discovery apps like Zomato and Dineout. Since their download numbers are still small in comparison to the existing firms in this space, it’s too early to evaluate which one would emerge out among the rest.

FnB City Media, dba Happitoo, is a a hyperlocal nightlife mobile app. Happitoo is a location based nightlife experience platform that enables users to explore, discover and socialize over food, drinks, dance, music, theme nights, buffets and real time offers at restaurants, pubs, clubs and lounges, all in a single swipe. The app is also integrated with Uber, to make the experience more comfortable and complete for its users.

Date	10/26/2015
Round	Angel
Amount	$0.08M
Investors	Undisclosed Angel Investors
Valuation	$XXM
Revenue	0 FY undefined
Sources	1

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