look news india
An emerging tech startup from Bengaluru has taken a big step to completely change the traditional way of spending weekend outings and leisure time in the busy urban life. Bengaluru-based Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered experience-tech platform ‘Alive App’ has raised an investment of $ 1 million, or about Rs 9.5 crore, in its new funding round. This funding round has been jointly led by Powerhouse Ventures and ‘Flipkart Ventures’, the investment arm of e-commerce giant Flipkart.
This investment is considered very important in India’s rapidly growing Experience Economy sector. Till now, spending weekends in big cities of the country was considered to mean only eating in a restaurant, watching a movie or going to the mall. But Alive App, founded by Vivek Kumar, is changing this thinking by providing people with exclusive and curated experiences related to adventure, food, wellness, art, culture and learning new things. The company’s main objective is to make weekend exploration a habit, so that urban people can enjoy their free time to the fullest and creatively every week.
The company will use this new fund from Flipkart Ventures and Powerhouse Ventures to strengthen its technology and supply infrastructure. Alive App aims to make its AI-engine more advanced to suggest personalized weekend activities to users based on their mood, location and preferences. Along with this, the company is aiming to increase its revenue by three times (3X) in the coming few months.
The biggest achievement for the company has been that it has recorded its first profitable quarter in its biggest and first market i.e. Bengaluru. After this financial strength, the company is now focusing on deepening its presence in other metros. Through this investment from Flipkart Ventures, Alive App also expects to gain direct strategic benefits from Flipkart’s vast digital ecosystem, mentorship and consumer reach.
The scope of Alive App is no longer limited to IT hub Bengaluru only. Over the last six months, the platform has expanded rapidly to launch its services in major cities such as Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Goa. There are currently over 500 different categories of curated experiences available on the platform and its network includes over 400 local creators and partners.
Instead of acting as a simple listing aggregator, the company works with creators to design and launch new and unique experiences themselves. The company is adding about 100 new experiences to its platform every month. Vivek Kumar, Founder and CEO of Alive App, says that the response from users in cities like Mumbai and Chennai has been much faster than the initial days in Bengaluru. The youth of India’s metros and tier-1 cities are now looking beyond the usual outings to activities that are memorable and energize them.
Commenting on the investment, Kshitij Golwalkar, General Partner, Powerhouse Ventures, said that Alive App is one of the most differentiated and capital-efficient companies in its category. He highlighted how the startup is setting a new example in the consumer tech sector by using artificial intelligence not just as a feature, but across its entire business model and operations.
The inclination to live new experiences rather than spend on material goods has increased rapidly among Millennials and Generation-Z in India. Be it learning clay pottery on a weekend, night camping for stargazing, or being a part of a heritage walk—the urban population is no longer shying away from spending money for these options. This financial support from Flipkart Ventures will not only open new doors for this startup, but will also provide a new direction to the leisure-tech and experience-tech sectors in the country’s startup ecosystem.