Wooplr raises $8M in Series B; targets $100M GMV by 2018
Prominent fashion discovery and marketplace platform Wooplr has announced that it has raised $8 million in Series B round from Sistema Asia fund, a proprietary fund floated by Sistema JSFC. The round also saw participation from existing investor Helion Ventures and Amereus Group. Wooplr intends to use this fund to focus on driving commerce through its fashion content, strengthen product, and technology, and build an aspirational platform to discover fashion.
Evgeniy Ivanets of Amereus Group says, “Globally, companies like Mogujie (China) and Younique (US) have led socially driven commerce to greater heights and built Unicorns. We believe Wooplr is set up right to create unique experiences for fashion shoppers in India.”
Arjun Zacharia, CEO at Wooplr, says, “We are happy to have Sistema and Amereus Group as part of this journey because they bring international experience and capabilities in consumer-focused technology businesses.” Talking to YourStory, he added that Wooplr is targeting GMV of $100 million by 2018.
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Wooplr focuses on user-generated fashion content and boasts three million users. The content is served in a personalised format for each user.
Prior to its launch in December 2013, Wooplr had raised $225,000 from a group of angel investors, including Rahul Khanna, Sunil Kalra, Vivek Pandit, and Jaspreet Bindra. It received $5 million in Series-A funding from Helion Ventures in January 2015.
In March 2016, Wooplr raised an undisclosed amount funding from the co-founders of InMobi, Naveen Tewari, Abhay Singhal, and Amit Gupta; InMobi Chief Product Officer Piyush Shah; TaxiForSure co-founder Raghunandan G; and ex-Puma India CEO Rajiv Mehta, who are now board advisors.
In the last one year, Wooplr has transformed from a discover-only platform to a marketplace model. “We wanted to prove a model to take the next step. Now Wooplr is about discovery leading to commerce,” says Arjun. Three months ago, Wooplr launched cosmetics category, which Arjun claims is doing very well. But their best performing category is apparel.
Wooplr has zero inventory and lean marketplace model built on brands, influencers, and shoppers. It has partnered with 200 brands and 10,000 key opinion leaders (KOL). Although there are no celebrities, many of these KOL have half a million followers.
“We have seen 40 percent monthly growth in the number of users in the last one year. Every transaction gives us money, as we are not giving any discounts. With an average ticket size of Rs 1,000, we have positive unit economics already,” says Arjun.
Founded by Arjun, Ankit Sabharwal, Praveen Rajaretnam, and Soumen Sarkar, Wooplr is headquartered in Bengaluru and has branch offices in Delhi and Mumbai. Praveen and Soumen left the company last year.They have 65 employees now. In the fashion discovery and commerce sector, Wooplr is competing with the likes of Limeroad, Roposo, and Seenit.
