Ladyblush.com raises seed round from Bangkok-based VC fund Alpha Founders, others

Gurgaon-based women-focused etailer Ladyblush.com has secured an undisclosed amount from Bangkok-based VC fundAlpha Founders. This is the first round of investment in the company. Other independent investors were also part of the round.

Founded in February, Ladyblush is an online marketplace dealing in cosmetics, jewellery, watches, fragrances, lingerie, ethnic wear and more from various brands. It follows a zero inventory model.

"Compared to other players in the market, Ladyblush has a very clear positioning paired with extremely lean operation. These ingredients will make the business scale easily," said Johannes von Rohr, founding partner, Alpha Founders.

Ladyblush was founded by Rahul Sethi, the former president of Ibibo's e-commerce division, with his former colleague Suneet Manchanda, who was the business head of Tradus.in at Ibibo and Nagarjun Shrivastava, who headed the India operations of UK-based online train tickets retailer The Trainline.com. "Alpha Founders are complementing our team and business model with years of e-com expertise. They also bring aboard a network of co-investors for additional future funding rounds," Sethi said on the investment.

"The capital raised will be utilised for 4 areas broadly -- increasing team, building depth in catalogue, marketing and technology," Sethi added. He also informed that the startup is doing a few thousand orders a month and is a profitable venture. "This external capital is for expansion and scaling up," he said.

Alpha Founders is a venture capitalist and venture builder formed by a group of entrepreneurs. It focuses on early to mid-stage investments in India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and South-east Asia. It has also funded Bitebox.com and Sidewards.de. Interestingly, all three founders of Ladyblush are also venture partners at Alpha Founders. It also has on board William Pearce, former managing partner of German incubator-cum-fund Rocket Internet. Pearce is here as an advisor for Indian markets. Ladyblush competes with players like Pepperfry, 99labels, Snapdeal and Flipkart.

(Edited by Prem Udayabhanu)