Online sneaker resale platform DawnTown on Thursday said it has raised seed funding of $500,000 (around Rs 4.13 crore) from Netsurf Communications’ Sujit Jain and actor Sanjay Dutt.
The Mumbai-based firm, founded by Kushagra Patwari and Risheek Agrawal in 2021, will use the fresh funds to foray into physical retail market and scaling up its online footprint.
DawnTown authenticates and resells high-end sneakers unavailable on any platform or at retail stores, the company said in a statement.
“With this investment our goal would be to set up our flagship store in Mumbai’s Pali Hill curate our inventory and provide sellers a platform to sell their sneakers while getting the payout,” said Patwari and Agrawal.
The sneaker marketplace has witnessed an uptick in 2022, especially among millennial, generating revenue of $2.62 billion. The space is expected to grow annually by 11.58%.
Direct-to-consumer (D2C) platform Blingg has secured pre-seed funding of $100,000 (around Rs 82.7 lakh) led by Decentralized VC, with participation from Pavan Kumar (3PM Ventures) and others.
The company will deploy the fresh proceeds for product development.
Founded by Sanil Jain in 2021, Blingg is a platform that enables D2C brands to launch, sample and sell through their Shopify-integrated platform. The Mumbai-based firm claims to have worked with over 75 D2C brands across food, beverage, health, wellness and beauty.
“We are currently developing technology that will enable D2C brands to reach their ideal customers effectively. Our current fundraise will help in launching our proprietary matchmaking technology for product sampling.” said Jain.
“Most D2C brands struggle with online marketing and need new channels to reach customers. Blingg offers brands in the segment a new and cost-effective way to reach their target group and receive data on their campaigns along with feedback on their products,” said Jeroen Bertrams, general partner, Decentralized VC.
Lately, the D2C space also garnered the attention of large conglomerates, VCCircle had earlier reported.
According to investment bankers and investors, large conglomerates are finding it easier to buy out D2C brands amid a funding crunch for unprofitable startups. The trend has been rising over the last few years and will sharpen in 2023, especially for startups requiring capital to survive.
Early this week, another D2C platform for ethnic fashion, Shobitam, marked its first acquisition with apparel brand House of Blouse to strengthen its product offerings.
However, the financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
Among other developments in the apparel industry, D2C fashion brand D’chica raised Rs 1.62 crore late last month from revenue-based financier Velocity to scale its hiring and marketing plans. The brand generates revenue from its core offerings—innerwear--along with a fashion line of sportswear, loungewear and footwear.
Another popular apparel and footwear brand, Bewakoof Brands Pvt. Ltd, handed a majority stake to TMRW, a wholly-owned unit of Aditya Birla Fashion Retail Ltd. for about Rs 200 crore. Bewakoof, in December, also said that it is aiming to break even by the next financial year, and achieve 10% Ebitda margin in the next five years.
