Celebrity Ecommerce Play ‘The Label Life’ Secures $3.1 Mn In Funding

The Label Life, an online lifestyle brand of contemporary fashion, accessories and home decor has raised $3.1 Mn (INR 20 Cr) from Kalpavriksh, the Centrum’s maiden PE fund under Centrum Alternatives LLP.

Post this fundraise, Niraj Shah from Kalpavriksh will be joining the board of The Label Life, working closely with the operations and expansion plans in 2018.

The Label Life offers brands styled by Bollywood actresses Sussanne Khan, Malaika Arora and Bipasha Basu. The Mumbai-based startup was founded in November 2012, by Preeta Sukhtankar and Yashika Punjabee.

The startup also counts Mithun Sacheti (Co-founder of CaratLane), and Haresh Chawla (Partner at True North) as its investors.

Preeta Sukhtankar, Founder and CEO, The Label Life said “Kalpavriksh’s team has a deep understanding of supply chain, operations and customer engagement, so we have a lot to benefit from this partnership. With Kalpavriksh’s investment, the brand’s immediate plans are to aggressively expand the label, double the SKUs, explore an omni-channel strategy and focus on collaborations & partnerships.”

The Label Life aims to provide an immersive online shopping experience to the users, whose customers are usually women between the ages of 23-45 years. The company claims that more than 75% of its customers are urban working women.

The brand now aims to provide easy access to all sorts of fashion accessories and therefore, is open to exploring relevant partnerships and has also worked with other consumer brands in the FMCG and personal care spaces.

Speaking on the development, Giri Krishnaswamy, Chief Investment Officer, Kalpavriksh said “Consumer-centric businesses are at an inflection point in India and The Label life is well positioned to capitalize on this opportunity. The brand has demonstrated growth through innovation and strong customer engagement simultaneously with good unitary economics. ”

The Indian Digital Fashion Market, A Promising Category

According to a report by Facebook and BCG, of the $70 Bn Indian fashion market today, about $7-9 Bn is already digitally influenced. Since the country is in the middle of a digital transformation, a majority of the suburban and rural population has been acquainted with the ecommerce market.

Retail players like Zara are coming online since the digital market is poised to grow exponentially in the future. The influence of digital market is expected to multiply nearly four times to reach ~$30 Bn by 2020, a staggering number which will constitute 60-70% of the total branded apparel market, according to the report.

Other existing celebrity promoted brands include HRX by Hrithik Roshan, Wrogn by Virat Kohli, among others.

The report also says that the amount of women shoppers by 2020 will increase by 2.5X. With such promising reports, The Label Life can arguably occupy a chunk of the digital fashion market in the future if the co-founders and major investors execute their game plan with minimal errors. How well the startup will be able to lead its way with the recent funding round from Kalpavriksha remains to be seen.