High Street Essentials Pvt Ltd, the company that owns and operates FabAlley.com, an online fashion brand exclusively for women, has raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Indian Angel Network (IAN), a national network of angel investors that invest in startups and early-stage ventures. The funding was led by IAN members Tushar Singh and Mohit Goyal, and as part of the investment, Singh will join the board of the startup.
FabAlley will invest the funds to increase its manufacturing and merchandising strength by adding new categories in both apparel and accessories, as well as in increasing depth in existing categories. It will also use the investment to improve its technology, supply chain capabilities, warehousing and marketing.
Launched in June 2012 by Shivani Poddar and Tanvi Malik, FabAlley offers design-differentiated and fashionable clothing and accessories for woman on-the-go. The USP of the brand is identifying and interpreting global fashion trends (for the modern Indian woman) into affordable apparel, jewellery, accessories, shoes and bags. Users can shop by trends, by budget and by occasion, and the company has also started a customised subscription service called ‘Jewelbox’.
The site also offers a fashion blog, which provides fashion bytes, trend reports, style tips and street style beats, in addition to a fashion quiz. Going forward, FabAlley plans to rebrand and re-launch its fashion blog with more interactive features and in-depth fashion coverage.
“Change in consumer lifestyle, supported by altered consumer mindset has given a boost to the e-commerce business in India. Tanvi and Shivani make an excellent team and we would be delighted to help them scale up FabAlley,” said Singh.
IAN has over 250 members and has funded around 60 startups across sectors like IT, mobile, healthcare, gaming, hospitality and education—both in India and abroad. In 2011, IAN invested over $8 million in 11 startups and last year, this amount increased to $11 million, invested in 17 companies.
FabAlley is IAN’s eighth investment in this calendar year. Here’s a quick relook at its other recent investments.
Sept 2013: Bangalore based Mukunda Foods Pvt Ltd received its angel round of funding from IAN. The investment was led by IAN members Hari Balasubramaniam and P Gopinath who had also mentored the company post incubation.
July 2013: IAN invested an undisclosed amount in AM Edumedia Pvt Ltd, which runs IndiaCollegeSearch.com, an online search engine for Indian colleges and universities. The investment was led by IAN members Anupam Mittal, Vikram Upadhyaya and Varun Khurana and as part of the investment, Upadhyaya and Khurana joined the board of the startup.
July 2013: SnapLion Global Ltd, the company that owns and operates SnapLion.com, an online platform to create sleek, interactive mobile apps for anyone wishing to engage their fans in real time, received an undisclosed round of funding from India Internet Group, Blume Ventures and Rehan Yar Khan-led Orios Venture Partners. Silicon Valley-based investors including Vuclip CEO Nickhil Jakatdar and Piyush Shah, apart from Indian Angel Network members Rajan Anandan, Sandeep Soni and Gaurav Sharma, also participated in the round.
July 2013: Delhi-based social tech company Gram Vaani Community Media Pvt Ltd, whose social platform features voice and video-based local media offerings, raised $500,000 in its first equity investment round from IAN, along with a few unnamed investors.
March 2013: Invested an undisclosed amount in online education company Rank Junction Pvt Ltd which runs RankJunction.com, a ranking platform for competitive exams.
Feb 2013: Invested an undisclosed amount in Seattle-based Mobilewalla, a search portal for mobile apps, with IAN members Rajan Anandan, Venkat Raju and Sharad Sharma leading the investment round. As part of the investment, Raju joined the Mobilewalla board.
Feb 2013: XinLab Inc., which operates under the brand Vuclip, acquired Mumbai and Toronto-based mobile video streaming startup Jigsee in an all-stock deal while IAN and venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, who had invested in Jigsee two years ago, swapped stake to become shareholders of VC-backed Vuclip.