Funding Options for my Startup

Good LUCK! most investors will not invest in a traditional E-commerce site where you are selling products versus services. The few that do, probably would have little interest investing in a business that is geared towards just india.

I would look for local indian investors. If not an option then try re-ivnesting your profits as best you can. Last, if you are drop shipping, then the amount of investment you require would be minimal other than marketing. Based on the 12k facebook fans, and the shameless plug in your question i doubt you and your team are having a hard time coming up with creative and inexpensive marketing ideas.

Angel investments will be MUCH easier than VC investments, in terms of the legal, etc. costs and process. Plus, whoever comes in at this stage will expect a very good deal (i.e., the person will want to get a very good portion of the company for the funds invested)--so take in as little as you can get by with now--which means angel investor, since you're giving away shares in your company now for a very low price. You don't want to take in a huge investment now since you'd be giving away a much larger share of your company now per dollar invested than you will in the future.

Typically you'd issue convertible notes (promissory notes that are convertible into whatever securities are issued in your VC round of financing, at a discount to the per-share price of securities sold in your VC round- usually around 20%), issue stock or do some other type of bridge loan to tide you over until your VC round.

There are lots of angel funding networks for localized Indian startups in particular. You can write up a business proposal and share your plan with them. Further read this article for more elusive thoughts on finding Indian angel investors http://www.livemint.com/2007/12/03003049/Indian-startups-find-angel-fu.html. You are already there in business for more than a year time so your business reputation and credibility will also secure a business advantage to attract interested investors.

• http://www.pitchindia.com/
• http://www.indianangelnetwork.com/about-us.aspx

It really depends on how much money you need and what stage you are at. From your site, it looks like it's functional and customers can place orders. So, it appears to me that your company is now launched. Now, the trick is getting people to buy.

You probably now need more marketing money than development money to get people to show up to your site. I would recommend you figure out how much money you need to become profitable (if you are not already) and then figure out from there.

To give you some ball park numbers. Most angels will invest under $100k US. Some more but typically it's under that. A VC pushes you into the big money (say $1M-$5M). You might also want to consider Strategic investors (i.e. established companies). Go look for a company that would benefit from your technology/company. Sometimes even a profitable competitor might want to invest to expand their market, etc.

A strategic investor could put $1M to $3M in or maybe just buy you. It all depends on the fit and what stage the company is at.

I guess you could join Angle List (www.angel.co) and connect with India based angels and VCs for a start...