Russian wedding startup Wedvice, a resident at the business incubator of the Naberezhnye Chelny IT park, in Tartarstan, has received 25 million rubles (a little more than $400,000 at the current exchange rate) in investment.
The investment came from Moscow businessman Alexander Borobyov, CSKA Basketballer Vitaly Fridzon and fellow IT park resident DoctorNet.pro. Among the service’s clients are Murad Osmann and Nataly Zakharova, creators of the popular photo project ‘follow me,’ which took the Russian Internet by storm in 2013.
Wedvice’s unique selling proposition is that it allows users to organise an entire wedding in 24 hours. It offers links to all the services which a couple would need to plan their wedding, from event organisers to venues, as well as offering advice from other newlyweds.
Furthermore, couples using Wedvice create their own wedding site, which displays all of the information about their wedding, and thus serves as a source of ideas for future couples, and as a form of promotion for the services associated with the event, such as photographers, caterers etc. The official site is due to be launched on 23rd March in 48 cities across Russia.
“The couple receive their own individual website with a unique design, chosen from over 150 layouts. It contains all of the information about the bride and groom, their love story, their gift list, a list of questions and answers about the event, the schedule, a map, photographs, videos, their views on the event, etc.,” explained Wedvice PR-director Anastasia Medvedeva.
“There will be an SMS service for letting guests know about any changes. Furthermore, the couple will be able to choose professional services for the wedding day, based on criteria such as price, location and so on,” she added.
The startup’s CEO and founder Vladislav Medvedev said: “I believe that our service helps professionals to avoid the ‘pain’ associated with trying to promote their brand. What’s the problem? For example, after a wedding takes place not every client is going to leave feedback. According to statistics only about 10% do so. Whereas we provide a whole website of feedback written and documented by the bride and groom, with video and photographs. The most important thing is that this feedback becomes a form of recommendation for the professionals involved. Yet the client is protected, since all of the information on the site is pre- and post-moderated.”
It is interesting to note that Wedvice attracted one of its investors purely by chance. Vladislav Medvedev was hoping to entice DoctorNet.pro’s designer to come and work for the site, but after a two-hours discussion with the company’s director Vyacheslav Fedoseyev, he ended up with a new business partner!
Source: RusBase.vc
