Fashion ecommerce startup StyleCracker raises $2 mn seed round from AMJ Ventures

Kanvas Consultancy, a Mumbai-based startup that owns the personal styling and ecommerce platform StyleCracker, has raised $2 million in a seed round from US-based venture capital fund AMJ Ventures. This is the largest amount the company has raised in a single funding round.

Earlier, the startup raised $0.6 million in two separate seed funding rounds from several angel investors, including actor Alia Bhatt. In August 2017, Bhatt had invested $27,739 in the company.

The Mumbai-based startup will use the funds to deepen technology and marketing, according to a statement.

“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 compounded annual growth rate of over 150% and is on track to grow the business over 250% this financial year,” said Dhimaan Shah, co-founder of Stylecracker.

The company has a presence in metro cities as well as in ‘Bharat’ towns, Anish Patel, founding partner AMJ Ventures told TechCircle.

Founded in 2013 by Shah and Archana Walavalkar, StyleCracker enables users to share their data and preferences across fashion categories which allows the platform-retained stylists to create the preferred products such as apparel, shoes and purses as per preferences and budgets. 

While Shah is an alumnus of Northwestern University and worked with HSBC prior to founding the startup, Walawalkar was fashion editor at Vogue magazine. 

AMJ Ventures is family funded, open-ended venture capital firm that invests in startups in varied sectors including fintech, ecommerce and technology. So far, it has funded New York-based luxury rental platform Armarium, Bengaluru-based lending startup Avail Finance and Propelld, a fintech providing loans to higher education.   

The fund typically invests anywhere between $1 million and $5 million in each startup. The ticket size can vary depending on the stage of the startup and its requirements, Patel said. Other than funding, AMJ Ventures will also provide expertise in terms of improving operations and hiring, especially in terms of leadership structure, he said.