FabAlley, a high street fashion brand, has today raised around $2 million in its Series A round of funding. The round was led by Mumbai-based India Quotient, with participation of IAN, Ranjan Sharma and a clutch of other angel investors.
With this cash infusion, the company will be using the funds to expand its offline presence, enlarge its product category and spend on marketing and brand building. The company is currently retailing via Central — Future Group’s fashion chain. It currently has about 25 live stores with Central and 45 more in the pipeline.
The expansion of the company through Central is expected to close by January 2017, says Tanvi Malik, cofounder of FabAlley. The company will be opening more stores through tieups with Shoppers Stop, Pantaloons and Lifestyle as well. It is also planning to launch its own exclusive brand outlets over the next 18 months.
Commenting on the fresh fund infusion, Tanvi Malik, co-founder of FabAlley, says,
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 2 sub brands -Curve & Indya.
Madhukar Sinha, partner at India Quotient, also comments on their investment and says,
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.
Founded in 2012 by Shivani Poddar and Tanvi Malik, FabAlley claims to be the ultimate Indian fashion destination for fashion-forward, indie-chic girls. It was started as a highly curated accessories only store. In a few months, FabAlley grew and all the trendy apparel and accessories of the company are designed in-house.
FabAlley is also in talks with celebrities to create co-branded collections as well as endorsements. Tanvi suggested that the company is working with an Indian designer for a specialised capsule collection which will be launched in a month. The celebrity collection should go live in around 6 months.
