No funds crunch for fashion startups

1. No funds crunch for fashion
startups

2. Contd…
Fashion startups are in vogue this season. Despite the current funding crunch
dogging the Indian startup space, startups specializing in fashion are drawing huge
investor interest. In May alone, several fashion startups including 6Degree, Blinge,
Shopwati, Hoppingo and Coutloot raised funds from investors that include Venture
Catalysts, ex-Flipkart CBO Ankit Nagori, IAN and others. Tiger Global-backed fashion
discovery app Roposo raised $5 million in the second round of funding in April from
Bertelsmann India Investments.
Industry experts attribute this to the burgeoning Rs 7,000crore online fashion
market, which is set to account for 35% of the total online retail market by 2020,
from 18% at present.“Online fashion is a highgrowth category today with youth
fashion and specialized fashion doing extremely well,“ said Sreedhar Prasad,
partner (ecommerce) at KPMG. Gurgaon-based fashion startup Postfold, for
instance, is catering to young working professionals with its `desk-todinner' apparel
concept. The company creates affordable workwear that can also be worn to
parties and dinners after work. Ashish Gurnani, founder of Postfold, claimed the
company is witnessing 35% month-on-month growth.

3. Contd…
“Fashion startups are trying to bridge the gap between online and
offline retail through innovation in tech and market efficiency ,“ said
Gurnani. “When we came back to India from the US, we realized new-
gen professionals don't necessarily go home after work because they
have social commitments. That's the gap we wanted to target.“
Earlier, it was just the online biggies including Amazon India, Koovs,
Flipkart, Myntra and Jabong that were trying to cash in on the high-
margin fashion business. But now, the market is seeing renewed acti
vity with entry of specialized players such as Aditya Birla Group's Abof,
Reliance Industries' Ajio and Arvind's NNNow, apart from several small-
scale startups.

4. Contd…
“There's so much potential and so little competition from any one brand,“
said Siddharth Talwar, co-founder and partner at VC firm Lightbox
Ventures.“The largest single fashion brand in the country is Zara and it's only
available in around four cities. Opportunity for new players doesn't get
bigger than this.“
While new startups are emerging, established ones such as Tiger Global-
backed fashion e-tailer Limeroad are gearing up for the big push.Starting off
as a womens wearonly platform, Limeroad opened its doors to men last
month.
“On the demand side, the retail lifestyle business in India is estimated at $70
billion, of which only 1-2% is online,“ said Suchi Mukherjee, founder and CEO
of Limeroad. “On the supply side, of the nearly 20 million estimated SMEs
that manufacture and retail lifestyle products, less than 1% are online. Either
way you look at it, there is tremendous room to grow .“

5. For Details and Appointment contact:-
Parveen Kumar Chadha… THINK TANK
(Founder and C.E.O of Saxbee Consultants & Other-Mother
marketingandcommunicationconsultants.com)
Email :-saxbeeconsultants@gmail.com
Mobile No. +91-9818308353
Address:-First Floor G-20(A), Kirti Nagar, New Delhi India Postal Code-110015