This unique online apparel rental portal just raised one of the largest funding rounds in recent times
Advertisement
Advertisement
Online fashion rental platform Flyrobe has raised around $1.7million in seed funding led by Sequoia Capital. The deal was closed last year and the official announcement is expected to be made later this month.Biggies from the startup industry including Snapdeal founders Rohit Bansal and Kunal Bahl, and FreeCharge founders Sandeep Tandon and Kunal Shah invested in this round. The filings show Zishaan Hayath, co-founder of Powai Lake Ventures, and Abhishek Jain, former associate director at Temasek Holdings Advisors India were the other investors
.
What’s so special?
Complimentary Tech Event
Transform talent with learning that works
Capability development is critical for businesses who want to push the envelope of innovation.Discover how business leaders are strategizing around building talent capabilities and empowering employee transformation.Know More
Who are these people?
Omapal Technologies, the company that runs Flyrobe was founded in September 2015 by IIT Bombay alumni Shreya Mishra, Pranay Surana and Tushar Saxena. The founders – Sh
Advertisement
Before starting Flyrobe, Mishra was working as an analyst with Everstone Capital, Surana has earlier worked as a senior analyst at Deutsche Bank and Saxena was earlier chief technology officer at Triptainment Technologies.
Troubled times for Sector
The apparel rental space has been facing tough times recently. Ethnic market-place, Craftsvilla acqui-hired women clothing rental platform F2SO4 and Bangalore-based online apparel rental platform Klozee closed operations.
Others startups operating in this space include Revamp My Closet, which was also recently acqui-hired by Spoyl, another online platform.
Big Money to be made, apparently
Advertisement
PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates the global sharing economy will grow from $15 billion today to $335 billion by 2025. However, its yet to pick up big time when it comes to apparel. Transportation, accommodation, and food and beverages sectors are doing better.Flyrobe estimates the fashion rental market, including western and ethnic wear is worth $4-5 billion today.
Rental economy picking up?
In India, the idea of rented apparel has been reserved to graduation, fancy dress competitions and theme parties.
However, as large scale immigration to bigger cities across the country picks up, investor interest too is growing. Back in November, furniture rental company RentoMojo raised $2 million in funding and Klozee raised a seed round from TracxnLabs and angels in August.
Image Source
Advertisement
Advertisement
- US buys 81 Soviet-era combat aircraft from Russia's ally costing on average less than $20,000 each, report says
- 2 states where home prices are falling because there are too many houses and not enough buyers
- A couple accidentally shipped their cat in an Amazon return package. It arrived safely 6 days later, hundreds of miles away.
- 10 benefits of incorporating almond oil into your daily diet
- From heart health to detoxification: 10 reasons to eat beetroot
- Why did a NASA spacecraft suddenly start talking gibberish after more than 45 years of operation? What fixed it?
- ICICI Bank shares climb nearly 5% after Q4 earnings; mcap soars by ₹36,555.4 crore
- Markets rebound sharply on buying in bank stocks firm global trends