Former Myntra chief’s trend startup Virgio valued at $161 million in new funding • robotechcompany.com
Trend startup Virgio, co-founded by Amar Nagaram, former chief govt of Myntra, has raised $37 million in a brand new financing spherical because the younger agency appears to construct “a worldwide trend model” from the South Asian market.
Prosus Ventures, Alpha Wave and Accel co-led Virgio’s Sequence A funding, valuing the one-year-old startup at $161 million (post-money). (Virgio says it was based this 12 months, however hasn’t disclosed its seed funding spherical.)
Virgio says customers’ trend preferences are altering quickly and they aren’t glad with the incumbents’ choices. It’s making an attempt to unravel this by streamlining design, manufacturing and buying processes in “real-time,” providing Gen-Z and late millennials a platform the place they’ll uncover and buy the brand new fashionable apparels.
Virgio presents a wide-range of choice in informal, celebration and ethnic put on. Every week it provides new picks and prospects obtain massive reductions and free delivery.
The startup’s method has prompted some to attract comparisons between its mannequin with that of the behemoth Shein.
“Historically, the style trade has operated on depth and low cost fashions,” stated Nagaram, founder and chief govt of Virgio, in a press release.
“On the core of Virgio is the tech basis, which is all the time listening to evolving traits on social media platforms and predicting the demand for every development. That is then fed into our agile and responsive provide chain to allow the trendiest, elegant and but inexpensive line in close to real-time. Thus, Virgio is pioneering the check and scale methodology, making runway trend accessible and inexpensive for all customers, whereas eliminating extra stock for producers,” stated Nagaram, a Flipkart veteran who took over Myntra’s prime job in 2019 earlier than leaving the agency final 12 months.
The startup says its full-stack method is permitting it to condense the standard lead time of eight to 10 months to only one month. Its eponymous app has already amassed over 100,000 downloads, it stated. (On Sensor Tower, the app displays little or no metrics as it’s nonetheless too small.)
“There’s a massive underserved marketplace for branded attire in India presently. For instance, for ladies, solely ~25% of trend is branded attire. The style trade in India is thus at an inflection level, pushed by altering client preferences because of social media’s affect, an essential Gen-Z attribute to individualize as a type of expression, and the combination of social commerce with social media platforms,” stated Ashutosh Sharma, Head of India Investments at Prosus Ventures, in a press release.
“We’re assured in Virgio’s tech-first mannequin and consider the startup’s skilled founding workforce is uniquely positioned to seize a big alternative in India’s trend trade,” he added.
Scores of different entrepreneurs — together with Mukesh Bansal, Kunal Shah, Binny Bansal, Bhavesh Agarwal, Vidit Aatrey, Saif Ali Khan, Sriharsha Majety, and Sameer Nigam — additionally invested within the spherical.
