Myntra set to invest in 10 fashion brands with accelerator programme

By Vijayakumar Pitchiah

  • 17 Mar 2017

Flipkart-backed fashion e-tailer Myntra is set to sign term sheets with 10 domestic brands and get them aboard its recently launched Brand Accelerator programme, a top company official told VCCircle.

“We have already closed term sheets with three of them and will soon complete it with the rest. Many more are at the conversation stage” said Ananya Tripathi, head of strategy and planning, Myntra.

Though the company did not divulge the identity of the brands, it said an announcement in this regard will be made soon.

Launched last December, Myntra's Brand Accelerator programme will sign 10-15 domestic brands every year, and it expects the exercise to bring in $500 million in terms of valuation for the brand over the next three years. The selected brands could be a mix of those already selling on the fashion e-commerce site, besides those that come by invite. The company will evaluate the applicants on various parameters, such as asset quality, product quality, sourcing infrastructure, business practices and whether the brand is addressing a white space in the market.

“The programme partners should be in it for the long haul. In the next 10 years, Myntra is looking to be in a position where we will have equity partnerships with the top five domestic emerging brands, ” said Tripathi.

As part of the programme, Myntra will promote the brands on its sales platform, apart from providing them with insights on marketing and selection bets, based on consumer behaviour data.

Myntra is betting big on private labels and expects its in-house brands to contribute as much as 21% of its total revenue by end of 2017, 25% by 2018 and 30% by 2019. It currently has 14 in-house brands, including names like Roadster, Moda Rapido, Dressberry, Invictus, Yellow Kite, Kook N Keech, Mast & Harbour and Invictus.

Roadster, which was launched in 2012, reached a run rate of Rs 500 crore in 2016 and is expected to achieve a run rate of Rs 1,000 crore by FY19. Earlier this month, Moda Rapido also became a Rs 50-crore brand in a span of 18 months, according to a report by The Hindu Business Line.

Earlier this week, Myntra launched its first offline store in Bangalore that will exclusively showcase Roadster products.

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