Mumbai-based MJVS Fashion Services Pvt. Ltd, operator of online fashion resale marketplace CoutLoot, has raised its pre-Series A investment in a round led by angel investor Anuj Puri, a co-founder and an investor told VCCircle.
Venture capital firms Redcliffe Capital and Artha India Ventures, and angel investor Siddharth Kothari, promoter and director at Om Kothari Group, also invested in this round. Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, president at Venture Catalysts, put money as well.
Investment and incubation platform Venture Catalysts facilitated the funding. Venture Catalysts had first invested in CoutLoot in June 2016.
CoutLoot is a marketplace for both men and women to buy and sell new and pre-owned branded and designer fashion wear. It has tied up with celebrities to re-sell items from their personal closet through its ‘Celebrity Closet’ feature.
The startup also sells its products offline through its ‘Pop up shops’, wherein it claims to have sold an average of Rs 3 lakh worth of stock at flea markets and exhibitions.
“Coutloot is emerging as arguably the most significant player in the huge and untapped fashion segment. Being the leader in this segment, it is the only service provider that focuses on curation and has the largest ticket size in this segment,†said Sharma of Venture Catalysts.
CoutLoot was founded in November 2016 by Mahima Kaul, Sahil Khimavat, Vinit Jain and Jasmeet Thind. It claims to have processed more than 200 daily orders and sees over 1,500 daily listings, across 14 cities in India.
Thind said the startup will use the funds to grow its operations, hire employees and for marketing.
In January this year, CoutLoot had acquired Bengaluru-based Stororo Services Pvt. Ltd for an undisclosed amount. Stororo runs fashion and apparel portal for sellers Once Again Store. In December 2016, it was selected by US-based social media behemoth Facebook Inc. for its FbStart programme.
The pre-owned fashion category in India is dominated by players such as Zapyle, CoutLoot, Envoged.in, StylFlip and Etashee. These portals seek to tap into the growing aspirations of the Indian middle class to own premium luxury brands.
In this segment, peer-to-peer fashion portal Elanic acquired an online marketplace for pre-owned toys and apparel for children for an undisclosed amount last month.
Venture Catalysts was founded by Sharma, Anil Jain, Anuj Golecha, and Gaurav Jain in December 2015. It has invested in startups such as train discovery platform ConfirmTKT , photography curation venture Siftr Labs Pvt. Ltd, data analytics firm vPhrase Analytics Solutions Pvt. Ltd, peer-to-peer lending startup LenDenClub, driver analytics firm Vahanalytics and online fashion marketplace Fynd.
