Craftsvilla Acqui-Hires Fashion Rental Startup F2SO4

Mumbai-based ethnic etailer, Craftsvilla, has acqui-hired clothes rental startup F2SO4 for an undisclosed amount.

Chandigarh-based F2SO4 was founded in 2015 by Delhi-based IIT alumni, Amrit Singh and Sachin Goel along with Partik Bhuchar. The startup was an app-based venture that offered branded and high-end designer clothes on rent. The startup was earlier bootstrapped and was founded as an apparel-as-a-service platform.

Partik Bhuchar, co-founder of F2SO4 said that before acquisition, F2SO4 was doing a good traction. It was floating 30% that is 1% for every INR 10 lakhs. He added, “We were looking for funds to develop F2SO4. However, we feel that it is not the correct time for online renting as the market for renting premium fashion is still at a nascent stage.”

F2SO4 was envisioned as a technology company that solves all fashion related problems technically. This was what interested Craftsvilla to acquire the startup.

Manoj Gupta, co-founder and CEO of Craftsvilla.com said, “Many services marketplaces will emerge between 2016- 2020. These could include something as basic as tailoring to as advanced as wedding planners. We see stitching as an important peripheral ethnic service for our customer experience and we see a lot of post-purchase demand around this from our customers. F2SO4’s sizing and fitting service were a big draw for us to acquire them. After acquisition, F2SO4 will continue working as a standalone entity.”

Craftsvilla, founded in 2011 by Manoj Gupta and Monica Gupta, is an online ethnic fashion retailer. With over 25,000 sellers from across India, Craftsvilla.com has close to 3.5 Mn products online across categories like fashion, jewellery, home decor and other ethnic products.

Manoj added “With the comfort levels that people do have on transacting through apps, I see services-fulfilment via app growing tremendously over the next 5-year horizon. Also, with 50% of women sellers, Craftsvilla.com has the highest number of women vendors in Indian ecommerce. We hope to aggregate many more homegrown women entrepreneurs into the fold through this service.”

Prior to this, in February this year, Craftsvilla acquired on-demand shipping service provider startup Sendd and online gourmet food marketplace PlaceofOrigin.in. In November 2015, Craftsvilla had raised about $34 Mn in Series C round of funding from Sequoia India and Lightspeed Venture Partners. It then stated that the company will keep aside around $9.8 Mn (INR 65 Cr) to acquire technology startups that will complement its business and enhance customer experience.

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