India Quotient Backs High Street Online Fashion Store FabAlley

Online fashion store FabAlley has reportedly secured $2 Mn (INR 13 Cr) in its Series A round of funding led by India Quotient. Existing investors, including Indian Angel Network, also participated in the round.

The funding will be used to expand its offline reach and scale up its product offerings. It will also be used for marketing and brand management.

Online-to-offline, high-end fashion platform, FabAlley was founded in 2012 by Shivani Poddar and Tanvi Malik. It claims to have achieved a significant profit margin by the end of September 2016.

Talking about the investment, Tanvi Malik, co-founder, FabAlley said, “We will be wrapping up (expansion of our Central stores) by Jan 2017. We will be expanding to categories such as lingerie and fitness wear. We will also expand our accessories portfolio to include bags, shoes, fashion jewellery as well as grow our two sub brands – Curve & Indya.”

FabAlley’s offline stores are currently run via Central – Future Group’s fashion stores. It will open more stores through tie-ups with Shoppers Stop, Pantaloons, and Lifestyle and will also launch its own exclusive brand outlets over the next 18 months, as per an official statement.

Commenting on the investment, Madhukar Sinha, partner, India Quotient said, “Eventually, to reach scale you have to be present everywhere; on your own website, marketplaces, and offline stores. We believe that it will be much more capital-efficient than some of the pure offline stores or brands.”

FabAlley is also reportedly in talks with celebrities to initiate co-branded collections and endorsements. “The company is working with an Indian designer for a specialised capsule collection which will be launched in a month, while the celebrity collection will go live in six months,” added Malik.

Earlier last month, online fashion brand StalkBuyLove raised an undisclosed amount of funding from William Bissell, Managing Director of ethnic retailer Fabindia. In the same month, fashion discovery app Findow received an undisclosed amount of funding from Raj Singh Bhandal, Director, Next Media Works.

Other startups in the fashion retail segment include Voonik, Fynd, Purplle, Roposo, etc.