Exclusive: Former Freecultr CEO Sujal Shah floats fashion portal BandraRoad

Entrepreneur-turned investor Sujal Shah, along with two other co-founders, has floated an e-commerce venture called BandraRoad.com after tasting success with a fashion blog of the same name which runs on Bollywood news portal MissMalini.com. Shah has also made an undisclosed amount of investment in the startup.

The first tranche of the funds was provided in the last quarter of 2015 to develop the brand's merchandise as well as for setting up the firm's e-commerce operations. The second tranche will come in the second quarter of 2016 for additional category development, Shah told Techcircle.in in an email interaction.

The other two founders of BandraRoad.com are former TV actor Surelee Joseph and fashion stylist and consultant Marvin D'souza. Shah is also CXO and an investor in MissMalini Publishing Pvt Ltd which runs MissMalini.com. He is also a former CEO of FreeCultr, a venture backed, omni-channel retail company and brand in India.

Run by Mumbai-based Bandra Road Advisory Pvt Ltd, the fashion e-commerce portal went live earlier this month.

BandraRoad earns its revenue via native advertising from its content blog on MissMalini.com, besides sales from the newly launched e-commerce portal.

"2016 is the launch of the store. Q2 and Q3 will be used to develop more categories and grow our content and marketing efforts," explained Shah.

As part of its first collection called ComfortWear, the portal offers seven styles for men and women, with clothing priced between Rs 499 and Rs 1,899. The designs at Comfort Wear are created in-house, with the fabric sourced from manufacturing partners. BandraRoad's fashion wear is targeted mainly at joggers. Shah said that globally, apparel designed for joggers is a growing category, with prices going up to $200 in premium retail. "BandraRoad is poised to define the jogger category in India," said Shah.

BandraRoad has on board Sureetee Rai, a former head of sourcing at Freecultr and currently assistant vice president of buying/sourcing at Lenskart, as an advisor. Rai brings over 17 years of experience in apparel and accessory development, from sourcing, merchandising and fabric development, to vendor management and product quality.