Roots Ventures Invests $1.5 Mn In Smytten To Support Expansion

Gurugram-based online discovery platform Smytten has raised $1.5 Mn in a fresh funding round. The investment came in from existing investor Roots Ventures.

Smytten’s cofounder Swagata Sarangi said that the fresh funds will be used for scaling up new user acquisition, product innovation and building multiple touch points for brand discovery and sampling both, online and offline. With this, the total funding raised by Smytten is $3 Mn.

Founded in 2015 by Swagata Sarangi and Siddhartha Nangia, Smytten is an online discovery platform for premium products and services. It offers assisted shopping by curating offerings for consumers as per their preferences, which is done through the startup’s backend algorithm that focuses on analytics.

Swagata Sarangi, cofounder, Smytten, said, “ Our vision is to completely change the way brands and consumers interact, making it more immersive and experience based. Smytten addresses a very fundamental gap in the pre-purchase journey of a consumer by giving them the opportunity to try hundreds of products across their lifestyle needs at a negligible cost.”

The company claims to provide one million monthly sampling orders to consumers from a warehouse in Ahmedabad. It now plans to open warehouses in Gurugram and Bengaluru soon. With close to two million users from high earning audience segment today, Smytten hosts over 500 brand partners on its platform across lifestyle categories.

Smytten offers lifestyle products and services in health and fitness, beauty and grooming, luxury stays, and premium services.

Japan Vyas, managing partner, Roots Ventures, said, “We believe Smytten is perfectly placed to help brands engage more meaningfully with its desired target audience at a significantly superior RoI then what is offered by other channels. They have already gained massive trust from hundreds of brands ranging from startups to established ones, with their ability to help brands in managing the sampling supply chain, improving their product engagement and brand story with real time customer feedback while delivering measurable increase in sales.”

The Indian online fashion market is estimated to hit $12 Bn-$14 Bn by 2020, and the market, according to Technavio, is expected to grow “impressively” at a CAGR of around 63% by 2020.

With the rise of social media and ecommerce platforms, more and more users are buying apparel online, including from homegrown brands. This includes the likes of Chumbak, TheSouledStore, Bewakoof, Disrupt, Happily Unmarried and more, which have grown from small social media pages to big brands that resonate with the youth of India.

As the fashion and beauty industry expands its horizons to include newer products, expand grooming range to men as well, the cosmetics market has been at an all-time high. The popularity of branded products, especially promoted by celebrities and stylists, has become the new demand.

A report claimed that the Indian beauty industry is looking towards a market value of $12.4 Bn (INR 80,000 Cr) by 2017-2018 and is expected to grow at a rate of 15% to 20%.

Unlike beauty ecommerce platforms such as Nykaa, NewU etc, with its focus on online discovery, Smytten competes with the likes of RangeMe, UnBxd etc. The global eDiscovery market is expected to reach $17.32 B by 2023, at a CAGR of 10.0% during the forecast period.