Bridestory Grabs Series A Funding from Rocket Internet Group
Indonesia's online wedding marketplace Bridestory has received an undisclosed amount of Series A funding from Rocket Internet Group. Beside Rocket Internet Group, this investment round is followed by their previous investors, namely Sovereign's Capital, East Ventures, and Fenox VC. Two new investors are joining this round. They are Skystar Capital and Lippo Digital Ventures. With this investment, Bridestory is ready for international expansion.
Established less than a year ago, this is another milestone for startup founded by Kevin Mintaraga and Emile Etienne. They just secured seed funding about six months ago. Bridestory plans to use the recently raised funds to accelerate growth, scale the team, step up the product development, and to get ready for expansion into the $18 billion wedding market in Southeast Asia.
Kevin Mintaraga, Bridestory's Co-Founder and CEO believes this partnership will help Bridestory to expand regionally, even globally. He said, “The people behind Rocket are proven entrepreneurs with track records in building successful global businesses. They are more than just investors. We’re excited about being able to work together with them to scale the business, but we are more excited to learn from their experience and tap into their knowledge as well as leveraging the Rocket Internet platform globally.”
In other hand, Rocket Internet Group believes Mintaraga and Etienne are both rare talents. The investor thinks the duo have vision and team to build large online business and cater wedding market. By leveraging the Rocket Internet global platform, which present in over 100 countries, there's big possibility to bring Bridestory to other part of the world.
Bridestory began to monetize after six months of operation. With premium service, it charge vendors for additional feature. To add credibility, Bridestory provides the “Diamond List Vendors” which contains trusted vendors that have good reputation and high quality services.