Fashionove, a listings and review portal for hyperlocal fashion retailers, has secured an undisclosed amount in angel funding from cricketer Umesh Yadav. This is the 27-year-old Yadav’s first investment in an online startup.
"The money will be used to augment technology and for data aggregation/expansion. We are aiming to build the best product for simplifying shopping experience of people who love to shop from offline stores. The funds will be used to make the product simple, smart, and data rich," said Sharad Kumar, co-founder and product head at Fashionove.
ST Visionary LLP, the company which runs Fashionove, was founded by Mudra Institute of Communications alumni Kumar and Tanushree Khandelwal. It connects shoppers with offline fashion stores and boutiques.
Fashionove caters to people who have moved to a new city for work or education and are unaware of the best places to shop in the city.
It targets shoppers in the age group of 18 to 40.
The company recently launched its mobile app.
It has already listed 800 boutique outlets on the platform.
"We will enter Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore soon," said Khandelwal, co-founder and operations head at Fashionove.
India’s online startups are on the investment radar of several present and former cricketers. Two years ago, batting legend Sachin Tendulkar made an undisclosed investment in UAE-based online travel agency Musafir.
In April, cricketer Yuvraj Singh launched YouWeCan as a $10 million seed-stage venture capital fund, along with business associate Nishant Singhal, to back internet startups. It has already put money in private jets marketplace JetSetGo, Vyomo (beauty services), Moovo (cargo logistics), Edukart (online education) and Healthians (online healthcare).
Yadav has played 13 test matches and 50 one day internationals for India, in addition to featuring in the lucrative Indian Premier League.