FS Life Raises INR 50 Cr To Fuel Offline Expansion

Women-focussed fashion house FS Life, the parent company of FableStreet and Pink Fort, has raised INR 50 Cr ($5.6 Mn) in a funding round led by Colossa Ventures and Rahul Garg, founder of IGNITE Growth LLP. Existing investors Fireside Ventures and Mirabilis Investment Trust also participated in the round.

The new funding will accelerate FS Life’s offline expansion, with plans to double its retail footprint from five stores across Mumbai, Pune, and Delhi NCR in the next six months, and a long-term goal of opening over 100 stores in three years. 

The startup, which is nearing operational break-even, said its stores are already generating returns within 18 months of launch. It claims to be operating at a revenue run rate of INR 160 Cr.

Founded in 2016 by Ayushi Gudwani, FS Life offers western wear designed for Indian women via its flagship FableStreet.Besides, it also launched its new label, Pink Fort, to modernise Indian wear for urban women.

The startup utilises a proprietary sizing algorithm based on over 3 Lakh body measurements to deliver superior fits tailored to Indian body types. Prior to this round, the startup had raised slightly over $9 Mn from investors like Fusion Tech Ventures, Kanwaljit Singh, Harmeet Bajaj, among others. This is FS Life’s first fundraise in three years, following its INR 50 Cr pre-Series B in 2022. 

“I started FableStreet with the aim of making every woman feel special and confident through what she wore. While the journey has had its ups and downs in the last 9 years of operating the business, it is this north star and customer love which has kept us going,” Gudwani said.

The fresh funding for FS Life comes at a time when Indian D2C brands are aggressively pushing their omnichannel play. The increased focus on growing offline business comes due to the fact that despite seeing strong online growth, a majority of consumer purchases in India still happen through physical retail.

For instance, online retail still accounts for only 4% – 5% of total consumption, and categories like fashion, jewellery and beauty continue to rely heavily on touch-and-feel experiences. This has pushed growth-stage D2C players to balance their digital roots with offline expansion to build stronger consumer trust and higher margins. 

For instance, companies like Wakefit and Lenskart are undertaking IPOs to raise capital that can be diverted to fuel offline expansion. Besides, smaller D2C startups like 82°E, Foxtale, Alphavedic, FabAlley, have also rolled out hybrid strategies through brand-owned stores, retail tie-ups or multi-brand outlets.