The time for weddings has arrived. Startups in the wedding industry are prepared to take advantage of the predicted 4.8 million marriages that will occur this month and the next month. Among the options available are drone displays, projection mapping, virtual venue tours, real-time decor tours, customised wedding applications, and Marry Now Pay Later (MNPL).
Mitesh Shah, partner at Physis Capital and co-founder of Inflection Point Ventures, told FE that startups are becoming more popular by offering customised artificial intelligence (AI)-based solutions that tackle the unique logistical problems associated with weddings. The company has invested in COOX, an online chef booking startup that provided services including professional chefs, bartenders, waiters, and kitchen cleaners for about 300 weddings last year. With other services like online reservations for rental silverware and crockery and even live vocalists, the firm hopes to host 500 weddings this year.
This season’s market is being driven by the need for smooth, technologically advanced preparation. According to startup owners in the field, individuals are already embracing digital tools for personalisation as well as ease. Tamarind Global, for example, has introduced AI-driven customisation, enabling them to offer budget tracking, tailored vendor recommendations, and more. Additionally, it has improved digital RSVP possibilities by providing wedding websites where guests may browse schedules, RSVP, and select meal options.
Players like Sankash, Bajaj Finserv, and a new company called Marry Now Pay Later are offering easy wedding loans, or MNPL, which are also becoming more and more well-liked. These give couples flexible payment alternatives so they can fund their wedding. Apps for exchanging photos are also very popular among young people. Couples and visitors can easily access and share memories in real-time with these applications, which employ AI for face recognition and automatically organise, classify, and even enhance images.
According to Parthip Thyagarajan, founder and CEO of WeddingSutra, an aggregator platform for wedding media and luxury merchants, the use of projection mapping is also growing in popularity. “This technology makes it possible to project more immersive spaces and custom-designed visuals onto surfaces, whether it’s displaying personalised animations across a dance floor or turning a blank wall into a lush forest,” he said.
Meragi, The Wedding Brigade, Weddingz, Wed Me Good, Wedding Wishlist, WeddingSutra, ShaadiSaga, and Bookeventz are among the 315 startups in the wedding technology sector, according to industry research platform Tracxn. The segment has seen investments from a number of leading investors, including Blume Ventures, Accel, and Peak XV Partners.
Online platforms for booking multi-category vendors, tech-based wedding planning and consulting, online gifting solutions, and AI-based photo distribution solutions are among the services provided by the majority of these firms. For example, Meragi offers customisable and reasonably priced venue decoration solutions, WedMeGood provides a one-stop shop for venue selection, vendors, photographers, and makeup artists, and OYO-owned WeddingZ provides information about availability, budgeting, and transaction facilities for wedding venues.
According to many of these businesses, demand has increased by 20–30% thus far this season. “We are witnessing an unprecedented increase. Couples and families are eager to resume their festivities, and demand has increased by about 30% from the previous year, according to Anjali Tolani, assistant vice president of weddings at Tamarind Global. Kesari Awayddings, another wedding company, says its gross merchandise value (GMV) has tripled this year and plans to reach 120 million by the conclusion of the current fiscal year. This season, the 2021-founded destination wedding firm will serve more than 60 weddings in Goa.
