A Renaissance in Indian Matchmaking. Check Out This Startup's Work! Matrimony app Betterhalf was launched in 2016 to help urban Indians find partners without relying on parents or relatives

Heartbreak and disappointment led tech entrepreneurs Pawan Gupta and Rahul Namdev to create a matrimony app for corporate employees that facilitates matchmaking without any interference from meddlesome relatives. Thus came about Betterhalf in 2016.

"Betterhalf is India's first and only matrimony app without the involvement of parents. We offer end-to-end wedding products to urban Indians, who are the primary decision makers for their marriages unlike their parents who were in the driver's seat a decade ago. The app connects hearts through AI technology on both iOS and Android for free," claims Gupta, CEO and co-founder, Betterhalf.

According to Gupta, the startup has built a horizontal product journey from matchmaking, verification, astrology and wedding planning. He claims that the app is used by over 1 million users on a monthly basis and is presently live in 30 Indian cities. While traditional matrimonial sites rely on parents as mediators, our long-term vision is to empower the individual to make their own choices; we want to become the Amazon of Indian weddings, so to say, claims Gupta.

And how was the experience of fundraising? "We were negative on contribution margin and had a high burn rate compared to the revenue in early 2022. This took us a focused six months to keep increasing the revenue while continuing to scale down our marketing campaigns. By December 2022, we were able to demonstrate a contribution margin positive company and with a path to EBIT level profitability in 12 months. Doing this is often a boring process and requires persistence which generally is not an acceptable norm in a venture capital-funded company," states Gupta.

Earlier this month, Betterhalf raised $8.5 million in a Series A funding round from FinSight Ventures (which previously invested in online dating app Bumble), marquee investors Mike Krieger (co-founder of Instagram), Arash Ferdowsi (co-founder of Dropbox) and others. The company is now working towards the goal of Series B funding and its platform hitting $10 million of annualized revenue in 16 to 18 months.

"My advice to young entrepreneurs is picking the problem that you most relate to and merging it with your skill sets that you could be most positioned to excel at. Once you decide to engage with something for the long term, you'll be able to gain understanding of the depths of the sector and have strategic advantage over time," he shares from his personal experience.