Backed by over $50 Million in raised capital, CraftsVilla, the online marketplace that allows users to buy and sell ethnic handmade products, has acquired clothing rental startup F2SO4 for an undisclosed amount.
While the amount involved in the acquisition deal is undisclosed, the company has revealed that the team of F2SO4 will now join CraftsVilla and continue working as a standalone stitching platform.
This acquisition marks the third acquisition by CraftsVilla this year. Earlier, it has acquired specialty food startup PlaceofOrigin and Mumbai-based on-demand logistics startup Sendd.
F2SO4 was founded in 2015 by Amrit Singh, Sachin Goel and Partik Bhuchar. The startup is an app-based venture that offered branded and high-end designer clothes on rent. The bootstrapped startup was founded as an apparel-as-a-service platform.
According to Partik Bhuchar, co-founder of F2SO4, the company had good traction before it got acquired. It was floating 30% that is 1% for every INR 10 lakhs. He further said,
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.
Manoj Gupta, co-founder and CEO of Craftsvilla, 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 lot of post-purchase demand around this from our customers. F2SO4’s sizing and fitting service was a big draw for us to acquire them. After acquisition, F2SO4 will continue working as a standalone entity.
CraftsVilla was founded in 2011 by the husband-wife duo of Manoj and Monica Gupta. It has about 25,000 sellers from across India and close to 3.5 million products across categories such as clothing, handicraft, jewellery and art on its platform.
Till now, the company has raised $54.5 million in four funding rounds from Global Founders Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, and Sequoia Capital. Most recently, it raised $34 million in Series C round from Sequoia India and Lightspeed Venture Partners, valuing the company at $200 million.
Last month, CraftsVilla announced that it is expanding its operations to other countries, including Australia, New Zealand, and Middle East with an aim to emerge as a global marketplace for ethnic products.
