SUMMARY
The Startup Will Use The Funding To Scale Operations And Strengthen Its Leadership Team
Mumbai-based fashion accessories etailer Pipa Bella Accessories Pvt Ltd, which runs the brand ‘Pipa+Bella’, has secured $1 Mn in a funding round led by Fireside Ventures. Existing investors also participated in this round.
Earlier, Pipa+Bella has raised funding from investors such as LionRock capital, Rajesh Sawhney, Hari Kumar, Roopa Nath and Teruhide Sato. It has not been specified by the Pipa+Bella team whether all or a few of these investors have participated in the latest $1 Mn round of funding.
The funding will enable Pipa+Bella to build the brand through innovative and sustained marketing efforts, scale operations through new distribution channels and make key management hires. With this round of funding, Kanwaljit Singh, Founder of Fireside Ventures will also join Pipa+Bella’s board.
Shuchi Pandya, CEO and founder of Pipa+Bella stated, “Kanwaljit and Team Fireside are the best partners for us, as they truly understand the process of brand building, and have supported us through their deep expertise in marketing and distribution. We are very excited to work with them.”
Pipa+Bella derives its name from two European words that describe the company’s range of products and customers. A typical “Pipa” woman is bold, edgy and always ready to experiment and a typical “Bella” woman is a classicist, graceful and more conservative. The brand celebrates different styles that exemplify these two aesthetics through its product range.
Pipa+Bella currently offers custom-made and ready-made fashion jewelry at affordable prices to over 40K+ customers across India. It further aims to reach to 1.5 Lakh customers over the next twelve months, solving the various pain points of the sector such as high mark-ups, lack of curation or style guidance amongst others.
The brand has also been worn by some of the top Bollywood celebrities and has been featured in International fashion and business publications such as Vogue, Harpers, Femina, Grazia, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Economic Times and The Wall Street Journal.
As claimed by the startup, Pipa+Bella launches approximately 100 new styles of fashion accessories every week that are all priced well between $7.7-$46.2 (INR 500 – 3,000). It targets urban woman who is within the age group of 22-35 years who is fashion-conscious, social media savvy and is quick to adapt to the latest trends.
Other Indian players offering low to medium budget fashion jewellery are Voylla, Kraftly, Jabong, Cilory, Craftsvilla, StyleFiesta and Voonik amongst others. The demand for fashion jewellery has grown significantly in the last few years due to high prices of gold and silver and is estimated to be a $6 Bn market. The startup has hit operational profitability in FY17-18 and is aiming to be cash-flow positive in the next twelve months.
However, being a tactile category, online fashion jewellery segment still struggles with consumer preferences like ‘try and buy’ and also have to face a tough competition from the local street stalls, selling fashion accessories at an attractive price range. Will Pipa+Bella, with the recent funding round be able to achieve its aggressive growth plans, will be something to keep an eye on.
