Fresh from its ‘three-of-a-kind’ acquisition of multiple startups, Voonik is making another bigger, money-involving announcement today. The company has closed a $20 million Series B round. The latest round was primarily led by existing investors, Sequoia Capital and Seedfund — an early backer of the firm.
This round also saw participation from a cluster of new investors. These include Japanese e-commerce operator Beenos, Singapore-based VC fund Beenext, Tancom Investments and Times Internet group. And Avendus Capital is acting as the financial advisor for the transaction.
This is the company’s biggest round of funding with interest from marquee foreign investors. Sujayath Ali, the chief executive of the company declined to comment on the financial details of the transaction.
Ali plans to use the freshly infused Series B funds towards strengthening all three core product categories on the platform. This includes the premium products category Vilara, menswear clothing Mr. Voonik, and its women-focused vertical, Voonik.
This round follows last year’s $5 million Series A investment into the Bengaluru-based e-commerce company. The previous round which was a follow-up on a series of acquisitions was also led by Sequoia and Seedfund.
With a zeal to create premium fashion products for the masses, the company has also acquired three startups, namely — Zohraa, Picksilk, and Styl. It is now focusing on curated fashion, and attempting to strengthen its hold on the unbranded fashion segment via niche acqui-hires. The company has also acqui-hired TrialKart to offer a virtual dressing room experience to its users.
Voonik founded by Navaneetha Krishnan and Sujayath Ali in 2013 claims to be India’s first stylist-handpicked fashion store. The company’s focus is to provide a personal shopping experience that helps you dress well within their budget. It also offers hand-picked styles and recommendations, based on your style preference and body type.
With the advent increase in Indian Internet users, as the Mary Meeker report depicts, the online retail e-trade industry is also expected to grow four-fold by 2020. The fashion e-commerce industry totaled around $3 billion last year. Further, the general e-business sector is expected to increment to $50 billion by 2020.
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