Fashionandyou.com, a private shopping site for luxury brands and designer apparel, has raised $40 million or Rs 200 crore in a second round of funding, led by Norwest Venture Partners and Intel Capital. Sequoia Capital India and Nokia Growth also participated in the fundraising.
This is one of the biggest investments in the Indian e-commerce space. The second round of funding for the luxury e-commerce portal comes in less than a year after it raised its first round of institutional capital.
In December 2010, the online fashion portal had raised $8 million from Sequoia Capital India. This takes the total amount of private capital to $50 million for the company, co-founded by former Yahoo! India sales director Pearl Uppal and Harish Bahl, founder and chairman of the Smile Group. The firm started operations in November 2009.
Interestingly, Norwest Venture Partners, Nokia Growth Partners and Intel Capital, along with Mayfield Fund, had also invested $17 million in Dealsandyou.com, the sister site of Fashionandyou.com.
The proceeds will be used for acquisitions and starting new business categories, as well as accelerating growth in existing categories and geographies, the company has said in a statement.
“We wish to use this round of financing to improve our offering and customer focus, so that we continue to be the most loved fashion & lifestyle retail destination,” said Harish Bahl.
Fashionandyou.com partners with high fashion and luxury brands across fashion apparel, designer wear, accessories, footwear, watches, jewellery, fragrances and home décor segments, among others, and holds private sales events for renowned Indian and global brands where prices are slashed up to 80 per cent.
The company employs around 450 people, operating across its offices and distribution centres in Gurgaon, Mumbai & Bangalore.
“The company has managed to scale its business significantly because of its early-mover advantage, the strength of its experienced team of professionals hailing from the Internet and retail industries and the company’s strong supplier relationships,” Niren Shah, managing director of NVP India, commented on the investment.
Indian e-commerce space has been hotting up for the past one year and many of the e-commerce companies have raised money in the recent past. With moneybags back for funding, these Internet ventures and entrepreneurs are thinking big once more even as analysts are questioning whether a bubble is in the making.
Three months ago, group buying site Snapdeal.com had raised $40 million in its series B funding, led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Existing investors Nexus Venture Partners and Indo-US Venture Partners also participated in that round. Earlier too, Snapdeal’s fundraising charted a similar track when it announced a $12 million series A round in January, raised from Nexus and Indo-US Venture Partners.