It may not be the first time a Bollywood star is picking up a stake in startups. Alia Bhatt has made a small investment in a fashion-tech startup StyleCracker.
Alia has said that she is not exactly interested in making startup investments, but in the case of StyleCracker she has an emotional attachment with the co-founder Archana Walavalkar who has been the actress’ stylist for many years.
For the record, StyleCracker has received this as part of its pre-series A funding, though the amount raised has not been disclosed. The only details available right now are that it is a consortium of investors, including Alia Bhatt that picked up a stake and post this the two founders, Dhimaan Singh and Archana W will together hold 65% stake in the company. While Dhimaan Singh used to be an investment banker earlier, Archana Walavalkar was the fashion editor for Vogue.
StyleCracker specializes in offering personalized fashion boxes curated by celebrity stylists. The startup claims its business model is one of its kind and has been doing well since inception four years ago. They are receiving repeat orders from their customers.
The funds raised through the current round will be deployed in expanding their business spread. In the words of Archana, the Creative Director, “We understand the customer, create their unique profile and then curate a wardrobe that suits any mood or occasion.”
A typical fashion box can contain an apparel, accessories, cosmetics and even footwear. And these boxes are priced at different levels, Rs 2,999, Rs 4,999 and Rs 6,999.
StyleCracker claims to have shipped upwards of 50,000 boxes in the last four months alone and they are surprised that they seem to be getting more orders from Tier II and Tier III cities and that too for the higher priced boxes. The startup has also disclosed that though they have been servicing only female customers so far, they would soon be including the men also in their style creations and fashion boxes.