Social Commerce Startup Woovly Raises Fresh Capital To Enter New Lifestyle Verticals

Social commerce platform Woovly has secured an undisclosed amount of funding from Sony Innovation Fund, SOSV, RTAF and ViNners. 

The Bengaluru-based startup plans to deploy the fresh proceeds to improve its platform and provide a seamless and engaging social commerce experience to users.

Founded in  2020 by Neha Suyal and J Venkat, Woovly offers beauty and personal care products on its platform with a primary focus on the millennials of the Tier II and III cities of India. 

In a report, CXOToday stated that Woovly also combines shopping with immersive video content, ensuring audience engagement and simplifying the purchasing process.

“This funding round will enable us to further enhance our platform and continue our mission of offering a seamless and engaging social commerce experience to our users,” Suyal and Venkat said in a joint statement.

The startup claims to have seen a massive growth with its user base surging by 600% over the past 18 months. Woovly attributes this growth to the micro and nano influencers, coupled with engaging and interactive short video content about the products on its platform.

It further plans to expand its reach and penetrate into new markets along with new segments on its platform including fashion, home decor, and other lifestyle categories. It aims to tap into the vibrant market of 200M consumers of short content.

Last year, Inc42 reported that the startup was in talks with Shiprocket to raise $5 Mn. 

The startup competes with major ecommerce companies like Amazon, Myntra and Flipkart, among others. 

To cope with the rising trend of using influencers to market products, Myntra also joined the row of e-commerce platforms that offer videos of the products. In June, it launched a short video platform called ‘Myntra Minis’ to enhance user engagement and further improve the shopping experience for its customers.

Also, yet another social commerce platform Peepul Tree raised $6 Mn as part of a seed funding round from Elevar Equity to onboard more content creators and artisans onto the platform. 

Influencer marketing is a new and rising trend in the Indian e-commerce segment. Recently, a study by GWI revealed that a major chunk of Indian online shoppers discover products on social media through influencer marketing. According to the study, Instagram Reels drove 33% and 39% of beauty and fashion purchases respectively.