Purple Style Labs raises $10M in Series B led by Akash Bhansali, Madhuri Dixit Nene

Luxury fashion ecommerce platform Purple Style Labs, owner of Pernia’s Pop-Up Shop, on Monday said it raised $10 million in a Series B round led by Akash Bhansali (Director, Enam Holdings).

The round also saw participation from Madhuri Dixit Nene (Actor), Navroz Udwadia (Co-founder, Alpha Wave Global), Yuj Ventures/Sid Yog (Founder, Xander Group), Rahul Garg (Partner, Premji Invest), Mukul Agrawal (Founder, Param Capital), Rahul Kayan (Director, SMIFS Ltd), Girish Kulkarni (Suyash Advisors), Harminder  Sahni (Wazir Advisors), Rishi Vasudev (Co-founder, G.O.A.T. Brand Labs), Vineet Gautam (CEO, Bestseller India), and Sumit Jalan.

Mumbai-based Purple Style Labs is expanding its existing footprint in Mumbai, Delhi, and Hyderabad, besides opening in new cities such as Chennai and Surat. PSL further plans to expand in international markets with retail stores in New York and Dubai in the next 12-18 months.

Commenting on the investment, actor Madhuri Dixit Nene said,

“India has always had a rich history in culture, and this has constantly seeped into the fashion industry. This thought has been brought into the forefront by Purple Style Labs as they have given a new meaning and outlook to India’s luxury fashion industry."

"I have been highly impressed with their curation of refreshing designs, colours, quality and texture. They have a great sense of the market, and I believe that soon they would be a company to watch out for. Their biggest asset is recognising Indian designers and giving them an international platform to be discovered,” she added.

Founded by Abhishek Agarwal in 2015, Purple Style Labs incubates young designer brands and helps them with sales, marketing, and technical support.

In four years since its acquisition, Pernia's Pop-Up Shop claims to make 75 percent of its online sales from international markets.

Abhishek Agarwal, Founder, Purple Style Labs, said,

“While most of the Indian designers were able to build strong brand equity with consumers, they could not make it commercially viable and scale up to becoming a large business. Sensing this opportunity in the industry, combined with a personal interest in luxury fashion, led to the inception of Purple Style Labs."

Pernia's Pop-Up Shop has witnessed a 50X growth between 2018-2022. The omnichannel platform retails over 800 designers, including Tarun Tahiliani, Anita Dongre, Rohit Bal, Ritu Kumar, Gaurav Gupta, Amit Aggarwal, Masaba, and Anushree Reddy, among others.

The company has opened 10 Pernia’s Pop-Up Studio experience centres in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, and a global store in London, UK.

It has also acquired the fashion label Wendell Rodricks in December 2020 and expects to scale it to a Rs 100 crore run rate in the next three years. Since its acquisition, it has opened three Wendell Rodricks stores in Mumbai.

(This story was updated after a correction in the image.)