Luxeva Ltd UK, the company behind POPxo.com, a digital publication for women’s fashion, beauty and lifestyle, has secured Rs 3 crore (just under $500,000) in funding from a group of investors, including Google India chief Rajan Anandan and CaratLane.com’s Mithun Sancheti, who invested through Chennai Angels.
Others who participated in the round include VC investor Chris Mathias, Tej Lalvani of Vitabiotics, and Hussein Kanji of Hoxton Ventures.
“We are opening up our Delhi Office,†said Priyanka Gill, co-founder and editor-in-chief of POPxo. “We also plan to hire more people, besides developing videos & other content formats.â€
The startup was founded by Priyanka along with Namrata Bostrom (CEO). Priyanka is an angel investor and writer for various Indian and UK publications. Namrata earlier worked as a management consultant in London for banks and retailers. Namrata holds an MBA from London Business School.
Launched in March this year, POPxo targets women aged between 18 and 34 across India. POPxo combines witty stories written by in-house writers with content curated by a group of women who are editors, artists, designers and entrepreneurs.
The portal, which publishes six-eight stories daily, claims to have over 1 million monthly viewers, currently.
It recently launched POPxo Blog Network that brings together 20 of some prominent fashion, beauty and lifestyle bloggers. It has also partnered with brands such as Fendi, Swarovski, Lakmé, Wills Lifestyle, Caratlane, Westside, Vero Moda and Van Heusen.
In July this year, US-based digital publishing company Scroll Media Inc, which runs a digital daily under the name Scroll.in, received an undisclosed amount in funding from Omidyar Network, the philanthropic VC firm set up by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, with participation from New York-based Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF).
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)