Mumbai based online retailer for kids’ stuff Hopscotch has raised about $ 2 Mn in funding led by Nisa Godrej with participation of Singapore-based investor LionRock Capital, Skype co-founder Toivo Annus and Diapers co-founder and CTO Wei Yan.
The company the company plans to use the latest round of funding to boost its boost marketing efforts and enhance technology.
Founded 15 years back by two former Diapers.com executives Rahul Anand and Lisa Kennedy Hopscotch works on a flash sale model where it launches a new limited-time boutiques which last 96 hours, members receive a daily email revealing the latest boutiques. Currently it has a list of 400 odd niche international and domestic brands “with a focus on what moms want, rather than what is available to sell.
The store allows people to shop via Boutique, Category, Age, Calendar etc.
“We are providing mothers a new digital shopping experience, which was lacking in offline retailing. We are not a catalog e-commerce engine, but sell curated merchandise which moms won’t find in neighbourhood stores,” Hopscotch co-founder Anand said.
This is the first round of funding raised by Hopscotch, the company plans to reach sales of $ 4 Mn in the current fiscal.
LionRock Capital is operated by former Goldman Sachs senior executive Hari Kumar.
Recently hybrid retailer for kids and infant products, Firstcry had also raised Rs 92 Cr in funding led by Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, IDG Ventures & Saif partners. Babyoye, is yet another retailer which had investors like Helion Venture Partners, Accel Partners and Tiger Global backing. But just like any other ecommerce category, online kids products category also faces challenges as last year, Hushbabies.com was shut down by Lapis Marketing.
