Business LineOnline personalized styling platform, StyleCracker, which backed by Bollywood actor Alia Bhatt, has raised $2 million from US-based investor AMJ Ventures, reported media outlets including Business Line.
Founded in 2013, by Dhimaan Shah and Archana Walavalkar, StyleCracker is an online personal styling platform comprising of a team of expert stylists who personally curate looks based on its users' preferences and budget. The user needs to visit the website, fill out a style quiz and place the order. In addition to personal styling, the fashion tech startup also provides styling services for teams through its corporate styling programs.
StyleCracker intends to use the freshly raised funds to build a strong pan-India presence and move even closer to being the stylist to every Indian.
Alia Bhatt has bought a stake in StyleCracker this year.
Archana Walavalkar
In a media statement, StyleCracker Co-Founder and Managing Director, Dhimaan Shah, said, "StyleCracker has grown rapidly since inception, at about 150% per annum, and is on track to grow the business at over 250 per cent this financial year, after its funding from AMJ Ventures."
Commenting on the investment, Anish Patel, Founding Partner at AMJ Ventures said, “StyleCracker has shown great potential. The business has successfully maintained a low exchange and return rate which is nearly 1/3rd of what ecommerce sites have."
AMJ Ventures is a family fund that invests in early stage consumer and consumer-tech companies. StyleCracker is third and largest investment of AMJ in India since its India launch earlier this year. Earlier, AMJ has invested in Avail Finance, a Bangalore-based loan financing service and Propelled, a lender for higher education courses.
Recent Fundraise by Fashion-based Tech Startups
Last month, Stage3, a fashion-rental and styling platform, raised $2 million in a Pre-Series A funding round led by Blume Ventures. Stage3 has successfully established itself as the leading purveyor of design-led glam wear for men and women in the affordable luxury category.
In August, Fashion focused, O2O designer brands aggregator startup and fashion discovery platform, GetNatty, had raised an undisclosed sum as a part of its seed round led by Abhay Kumar - CMD of Grihapravesh Buildteck, Binod Choubey, Firoze Sethna and Parth Patel, all of whom are entrepreneurs turned investors. GetNatty also offers an AI enabled personal stylist.
In the same month, India's Minister for Textiles Smriti Zubin Irani has launched Project SU.RE -- a project which aims to move towards sustainable fashion that contributes to a clean environment.