[Funding alert] Fashion retailer High Street Essentials raises Rs 25.50 Cr from existing investors

High Street Essentials (HSE), the Delhi-based fashion house and parent company of brands Faballey and Indya, has raised Rs 25.50 crore in a round of funding led by its existing investors Elevation Capital, India Quotient, Dominor Holding, and family offices.

The startup will use the fresh round of funding for expanding the direct-to-consumer (D2C) footprint of its brand both domestically and internationally.

Apart from this, the company is planning to make its supply chain even more agile by in-housing key production processes such as printing and embroidering, thus enabling a 30-day mind-to-market production turn-around.

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Founded in 2012 by Shivani Poddar and Tanvi Malik, HSE is focused on fast fashion through an omnichannel retail model.

On the funding, HSE co-founders said,

“Over the course of the past year, we have worked extremely hard as a team by adopting strict cost-cutting measures, further leveraging our nimble supply chain, improving D2C customer experience, expanding into low capital-intensive channels, and foraying into recession-proof categories in fashion and beauty.”

The company had earlier raised Rs 20.75 crore in June 2020.

In the year 2020, given the onset of the first wave of Covid-19 pandemic, the company ventured into new categories that were pertinent to the situation such as fashion masks, loungewear, and formal keyboard-up dressing options.

It also strengthened its digital presence with new initiatives such as a subscription-based shopping experience, and catalogue curation with AI-based recommendations. The company also grew its global footprint by partnering with international marketplaces such as Namshi, Amazon US, and Zalora.

Currently, online revenue accounts for over 50 percent of the total revenue of the company. HSE reported gross revenue of Rs 180 crore in FY20.

Earlier this year, the fashion house forayed into the personal care segment with the launch of an in-house brand, Indya Skin Care. This year, the company launched a new Indian daywear brand called Earthen by Indya.