Y-Combinator Backed MyScoot Reportedly Raises $1.7M For Verified House Party Guests

Your friends might not appreciate your dogs-and-chai themed dinner party or your carefully crafted cheese board, but a stranger who pays to hang out with you might.

Sound a little odd? Well, apparently not.

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According to Crunchbase data  (and reports by Inc42 and ET Tech) Delhi-based MyScoot raised $1.7 million in seed funding so we can all meet “verified” new friends through theme-based house parties in Delhi, Gurgaon, and Bangalore.

The seed round included investors like Lightspeed India Partners, Venture Highway and Mayfield India.1 Maninder Gulati, chief strategy officer at OYO also participated in the round, according to multiple outlets. The startup also previously was in Y Combinator.

From classic dinners to salsa parties to rooftop bonfires, the website offers an array of social gatherings with open doors. At least, for those that will pay.

A neon glow house party, for example, is about  ₹750, or $11 dollars per person to attend. In the advertisement for the party, a recommended age range is also set. The aforementioned party, for example, is open for anyone from ages 18 to 54. Think of it as a party, but with profit. The average host profit is ₹3,700, or about $54 dollars.

The concept is catching on. In a blog post on the site, company founders wrote that they have helped more than 2,500 strangers meet someone new. “People have made friends in the new city they moved to, found their next coffee dates, got jobs, business partners and met new people with same interests,” the website reads.

I don’t know who the main competitors would be, other than, say a bar during happy hour. The startup wants to offer a place that makes meeting new people fun and safe, “without burning a hole in the pocket,” according to the website.

Some say it’s the Airbnb for parties. I would go more with the Tinder for friends. Maybe, the Uber for Friday night plans? On its website, MyScoot promises it verifies all users with a “5 step verification process to make sure you attend fun, creep free parties.” It claims its 150 parties so far have all gone on without “a single mishap.”

All of a sudden, paying for a party that promises to be creep-free doesn’t seem so odd after all.

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias.