FabAlley parent co High Street Essentials gets $8.54 M from SAIF Partners

As part of the latest transaction, FabAlley's parent co will also have Mukul Arora, Managing Director of SAIF Partners, joining the company’s board.

Online fashion store High Street Essentials, the parent company of western wear brand FabAlley and ethnic-fusion brand Indya, has raised Rs 60 crore ($ 8.54 million) in their Series B round of funding led by SAIF Partners. This marks the third round of equity funding raised by the Delhi/NCR-based women-centric apparel brand, and with this, HSE will be aiming to increase its distribution, product expansion, brand-building efforts and strengthen the technology backbone.

“Our goal is to capture both online and offline growth opportunities by leveraging our channel-agnostic approach through phygital store experiences, virtual fitting rooms, seamlessly merged forward and reverse logistics – all aimed at benefitting from the strategic advantages of both channels, while minimising their inherent disadvantages,” said Tanvi Malik, Co-founder, High Street Essentials.

The online-led label, dedicated to women clothing and fashion, was founded in 2012 by Tanvi Malik and Shivani Poddar. Four years in operation, their brand has since raised Series A funding led by India Quotient in 2016, and followed it up with a round of debt from Trifecta Capital earlier this year. As part of the latest transaction, however, HSE will see Mukul Arora, the Managing Director of SAIF Partners, joining the company’s board.

“When we met Shivani and Tanvi, we were really impressed by their deep customer understanding and solid execution muscle,” said Mukul, commenting on SAIF’s latest investment. “They have built two successful brands in an extremely capital efficient manner, and are well placed to build a very valuable business. We are very excited to partner with them on this journey.”

While FabAlley continues to cater to the growing demands in western apparels, Tanvi and Shivani’s second brand, Indya, launched in 2016, incorporates contemporary Indian wear with modern and distinctive Indo-western elements for the women-centric market. Together, the two lines retail via both online and offline channels. Commenting on the latest funding, Shivani adds:

“The capital infusion will help us scale our offline presence rapidly from 15 exclusive outlets and 120 shop-in-shops to 50 and 300 respectively by the end of FY20. We will invest in new categories such as Athleisure and our plus size brand, Curve. We will also look at amplifying our brands’ voices through ATL and BTL marketing initiatives.”

High Street Essentials claims to have turned profitable in FY18 with gross sales of Rs 80 crore. And as per Shivani and Tanvi, the company is on track to close FY19 at Rs 150 crore, while remaining EBITDA positive.