Fabulyst Pvt. Ltd, which operates an artificial intelligence-based platform emulating a personal stylist, has raised Rs 1.4 crore ($216,000) in seed funding from iB Hubs, a launchpad-cum-accelerator for startups.
The Hyderabad-based startup will use the funds for technology ramp-up, global customer acquisition, and product development, a company statement said. Raj Parakh, co-founder and chief marketing officer at Fabulyst, said the funding round will give the firm a 12-14 month operational runway, after which it will look to hit the market for a Series A round.
“With a unique combination of product pedigree and technical capability, they are solving a hard but very real problem with AI in consumer shopping. It’s a classic example of innovation by the use of deep tech,†said Rambabu Kondru, chief financial officer at iB Hubs.
Fabulyst, whose AI-based platform assists women shoppers at fashion commerce stores, was founded in June 2016 by Komal Prajapati, Vikas Jethnani, Vishal Chitravanshi and Parakh. Prajapati, Jethnani and Chitravanshi had earlier co-founded healthcare app Doctl.com, which got acquired by Olivo Healthcare. Parakh previously co-founded Lakecity Tutors, a company that provides one-on-one private home tuition classes.
Based on user inputs, Fabulyst's platform helps customers discover and shortlist products. It also recommends the best fit and styling based on queries around body measurements, body variation and skin tone. The company claims to have developed its proprietary algorithms, which are patent-pending, on the basis of deep learning technology.
“When it comes to fashion, the biggest doubt for the consumers is to understand how any style shown on a model would work for them. In stores, there are salespeople and friends to help with purchase decisions,†co-founder Prajapati said in a statement.
The startup, which pivoted to a business-to-business model last month, targets fashion retailers (both online and brick-and-mortar) as its customers. Prior to pivoting, Fabulyst was a chat-based Android app that handled more than 30,000 fashion queries from more than 1,000 women. Consumer data accumulated from this experience played a crucial part in designing the filters and recommendation engine of its AI-based platform, Parakh said. The app will continue to exist as a consumer data collection point to enhance the platform, he added.
Fabulyst, which was part of the accelerator programmes of Axilor Ventures and IIIT-Hyderabad (International Institute of Information Technology), had previously raised an undisclosed amount of funding from 50K Ventures, a Hyderabad-based early-stage investment firm.
The company has on-boarded a Hyderabad-based ethnic wedding-wear brand called mebaz.com, where the brand’s ‘personal stylist’ option has helped Fabulyst see a 150% rise in customer repeat visit rate and a 200% rise in the add-to-cart rate, Parakh explained.
The company, which is currently in talks with potential customers, hopes to on-board 15-20 major brands and 45-50 smaller brands by the end of this year. Parakh, however, did not divulge the identities of these brands.
According to Fabulyst, the global fashion e-commerce market is estimated at $80 billion in revenue, and the company’s addressable market size is $32 billion. The startup competes with global players such as Trufit.com and metail.com.
