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Bangalore-based, Klozee, which allows customers to access apparels on rent, has raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding led by Tracxn Labs with few other angels participating.
Started just a month ago by IIT and IIM alumnus Aman Haji, Prashant Jain and Pratik Moona, Klozee, allows users to rent designer apparel at one-tenth of the retail price. The apparels can be availed through website as of now, it has plans to launch its mobile app in the next few months.
Co-founder Aman Haji said that the idea to start Klozee struck when his cousin complained about nothing to wear despite having a closetful of clothes. He decided that it would make a lot of sense to rent apparel than to spend a fortune on it. Klozee plans to target aspirational, young tech-savvy women between 16 to 35 years of age.
If we look at India’s apparel industry, it is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 9%, reaching $102 Bn by 2023. As per Google India, online fashion retail market, which is the largest contributor to the organised retailing market in India, is expected to reach $35 Bn by 2020.
In any case the demand for fashion apparels is at all time high with the changing consumption pattern and hordes of brands coming in the country. To mark a note Spanish fashion brand, Zara revealed that it has become the first apparel brand in India to cross the $100 Mn sales mark.
With the raised funds, Klozee plans to boost its marketing efforts and expand its operations in Mumbai and Delhi, currently it has operations in Bangalore.
According to Aman Haji, co-founder, Klozee, “There is a huge demand for rented branded apparels, thus a huge market to tap, however, the challenge is to tap this demand and get the product across the market.”
How Does It Work?
- A consumer looking for renting apparel can log in to the website and choose from varied range of ethnic and western apparels.
- The range constitutes of western brands like Mango, Zara, Forever New, Tommy Hilfiger and more and Ethnic wear from various designers and boutiques.
- Klozee provides with two rental options like Express Delivery, which is an impromptu plan that avails the dresses for a day by delivering it themselves and the other is a four day rental where the dress can be pre booked.
The startup holds inventory of the products, however, some are sourced from brands with whom it follows a revenue sharing model.
Currently, it has altogether over 150 Indian and western outfits that range from INR 3,000 to INR 90,000 to be offered to the customers. Klozee claims to grow 50% week-on-week and is optimistic to touch 100 orders a day by the end of this year.
There are a couple of startups that are into renting fashion apparel, these includes Secret Wardrobe, Trezo, Sunroh Creations among others that compete directly with Klozee.
Though renting bridal jewellery, accessories, have been very common, but adopting apparels for rent has not picked up much in India. Apart from apparels there are few other startups that rent out bags, totes and shoes like Bagsutra and Bag4aday.
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