Big Idea

Matchmaker, matchmaker...

iBluebottle, a matrimonial site exclusively for Indian professionals

In British folklore, if young men in love wear a bluebottle on their coats and the flower fades quickly, it means their regard is not reciprocated. Manish Buxi had experienced firsthand the pain of trying to finding a suitable bride. And when advertisements and online matrimony sites didn’t help, the e-commerce executive and his i-banker friend Akhilesh Sharma decided to set up a website exclusively for Indian professionals. Appropriately, they named it iBluebottle. Membership to this matrimonial site is restricted to only top professionals and profiles are checked before they are included on the site (for additional verification, only official e-mail IDs are accepted). A proprietary personality matching engine then finds suitable matches based on a personality test — members can’t search uploaded profiles, so privacy is maintained. Started six months ago, in February the site started charging a subscription fee from those who wanted to interact with another profile. Some 2,100 prospective brides and grooms have already registered and the founders are now in talks with PE investors. Incidentally, Buxi did find his girl — that’s his wedding in the photograph — but not through his site.