Tech Investor Prosus Backs Fashion Startup Virgio, Pumps In $10 Mn

SUMMARY

Virgio’s board passed a special resolution to issue 1,16,366 Series A3 CCPS at an issue price of INR 7,005.3 per share

With this deal, Prosus will now own 6.25% of the startup. Meanwhile, Accel India continues to remain the single largest shareholder in the company at 16.29%

The Indian social commerce market is expected touch $84 Bn by 2030

Fashion startup Virgio has raised $10 Mn (INR 82 Cr) in an extended Series A round led by a Netherlands-based tech investor, Prosus Ventures. This is the third tranche of the startup’s Series A round so far this year.

In a regulatory filing with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), Virgio said that its board passed a special resolution to issue 1,16,366 Series A3 compulsory convertible preference shares (CCPS) at an issue price of INR 7,005.3 per share.

With this deal, Prosus will now own 6.25% of the startup. Meanwhile, Accel India continues to remain Virgio’s single largest shareholder in the company at 16.29%.

The development was first reported by Entrackr, which has pegged the startup’s valuation at INR 1,304 Cr, including ESOPs.

Founded in 2022 by a former top executive of Myntra, Amar Nagaram, Virgio is a social commerce platform that aims to connect designers and manufactures. The startup largely caters to fast fashion trends and has been modelled after the now-banned Chinese fast fashion platform Shein.

One month ago, Virgio raised INR 59.4 Cr in a funding round led by venture fund Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI) at a valuation of $100 Mn. It had also raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Accel India earlier this year.

Virgo is also backed by other angel investors, including Ola’s CEO Bhavish Aggarwal, Swiggy’s CEO Sriharsha Majety, CRED’s CEO Kunal Shah, and Meesho’s CEO Vidit Aatrey, among others.

In the burgeoning social commerce space, the startup primarily competes with players such as Meesho, CoutLoot and DealShare.

The announcement has come days after direct-to-consumer (D2C) clothing and footwear startup RapidBox bagged $4.5 Mn in a Series A funding round led by SIG Venture Capital. Last month, Aditya Birla Group’s house of brands TMRW invested in as many as eight digital-first lifestyle brands.

Overall, the space has been witnessing multiple developments. In October, Inc42 reported that Meesho logged the second highest number of orders during the festive season, beating ecommerce major Amazon.

Not just small startups, the social commerce arena is also witnessing the entry of deep-pocketed giants. In 2021, Flipkart ventured into the segment with its platform Shopsy.

According to Statista, the Indian social commerce market, which was pegged at $1.8 Bn in 2018, is now expected to surge to $84 Bn by 2030.