Photo sharing app Vebbler raises $500,000 funding led by Shaadi.com

Aiming to expand its team and boost its marketing initiative, camera and photo sharing app Vebbler have raised $500,000 around Rs 3.34 crore, from a consortium of 16 investors led by Shaadi.com founder Anupam Mittal.

The investors included Sharad Sharma, founder of the industry think tank iSPIRIT, and Pranav Rai, son of former Infosys board member Mohandas Pai, along with a string of high net worth individuals from the US, West Asia and Singapore.

Sahil Bhagat, CEO of Vebbler, said, “We started as a web platform and have been bootstrapped so far. The funds raised will go towards expanding the team, which comprises 15 people, and in marketing campaigns.”

Bhagat leads a group of under-25s who have together built the product within a year.

The Bangalore-based company allows people to instantly share photos with each other in real time. The startup launched in private beta on July 23, 2013, and has 1,00,000 users for its web platform. It has achieved 50,000 sign-ups for the mobile app in the past two weeks.

As of yet, the company is working on introducing new features such as video optimisation, which will enable people to share videos within clubs. Vebbler will also introduce club codes or QR codes which will help pubs, wedding organisers, travel groups and others to easily invite people into a club by simply scanning a QR code.

Vebbler’s mobile application is built on the Crowd Layering Model (CLM) which allows segregation of content sharing based on user groups and interests. It allows users to organise people in clubs to add a person into different layers, such as friends, family, workmates and acquaintances.

The company is working on adding features such as location-based sharing, automated clubs and photo-enhancing technology.

Photo sharing apps are a rage across the world, with the most valuable startup being Snapchat, which raised $1.81 billion in a fresh round of funding this year and Instagram, which was acquired by Facebook in 2012 for $1 billion.

Other apps include Cluster, which is funded by Instagram seed investor Steve Anderson, Japanese app Snapee and Splash.