In a country that spends US$37 billion a year on weddings, it is no wonder that one of its premiere matchmaking sites is going public. Matrimony.com Pvt has been attributed to have set two million marriages and it is now courting investors for its own matchmaking bid.
The company is backed by private equity funds such as Bessemer Venture Partners and Canaan Partners. The group is expanding a wedding conglomerate that includes websites that help arranger marriages according to criteria such as caste, skin color and family values. While its current clientele involves high end marriages, it is now expanding to include those of less affluent for their marriage needs.
According to CEO and founder Murugavel Janakiraman, "Marriages within the community is still very much the norm and I don't see that changing. This is a market that will keep growing for a very long time so the demand is strong." Janakiraman himself met his own wife in his very own site.
India has a tradition of arranging marriages and having an NRI marry a local girl is often one of the big tickets for a better life for local people.
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