Mumbai: US-based investor AMJ Ventures has invested USD 2 million into Bollywood star Alia Bhatt-backed StyleCracker, India’s largest personal styling platform
The fashion-tech startup will be using the funds towards building out further capabilities in machine learning and in strengthening its moat on the personalisation front, its Co-Founder and Managing Director, Dhimaan Shah, said.
“The funds will also be used to build a strong pan India presence and move even closer to being the stylist to every Indian. StyleCracker has grown rapidly since inception at a CAGR of over 150% and is on track to grow the business over 250% this financial year, after its funding from AMJ Ventures. The rapid growth is complemented by healthy economics with the Company turning profitable at a unit economic level,” added Shah.
Commenting on the deal, Anish Patel, Founding Partner at AMJ Ventures, said his company partners with disruptive start-ups who are on a mission to change the status-quo, and is looking to potentially combine data science with human expertise and reinvent businesses. “Style cracker has shown great potential. The business has successfully maintained a low exchange and return rate which is nearly 1/3rd of what ecommerce sites have. The business is also supported by a great learning algorithm. Glad to partner and accelerate the growth of StyleCracker, with value proposition to make fashion accessible to India at large as the platform democratizes personal styling. We look forward to tapping into the booming start up market in India by investing in more businesses,” he added.
Existing businesses where AMJ has made investments in India include Avail Finance, a Bangalore-based loan financing service; and Propelld, a company which provides finances for higher education courses. AMJ Capital already has multiple successful investments in the US and is now looking at growing and expanding its portfolio in India.
Dhimaan Shah said “With the Indian consumer becoming increasingly fashion forward yet starved of time and access, the focus for the consumer has shifted from discounted deals to one of curated fashion and tremendous convenience, albeit at value driven prices. Hence, this partnership between AMJ and StyleCracker will ensure unmatched convenience in user experience as well as value driven, unique supply.”
“With increased accessibility to information today, the consumer has become more discerning and aware of trends. They have highly evolved preferences, yet are sensitive to price points. In this unique and complex landscape, we offer deep personalisation that’s deeply nuanced and super emotional because that’s how fashion is consumed. Our vision has always been to be the stylist to every Indian. Our users are conscious about what they wear and how they look. With AMJ’s investment we see huge opportunity in decoding the complex needs of the Indian consumer and use several data points with predictive learning tech to make it scalable and better“ said Archana Walavalkar Co-Founder & Creative Director, StyleCracker.
