Exclusive: Fashion commerce site Yufta gets pre-Series A funding

Hyperlocal fashion commerce portal Yufta, run by RKT Lifestyle Pvt Ltd, has raised an undisclosed amount of money in pre-Series A round of funding from Ajay Data of Data Infosys Ltd, and a group of Mumbai and Dubai-based high net-worth individuals (HNIs).

The new capital will be used for technology development and expanding to Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai in the next six months, co-founder Ritesh Khandelwal told Techcircle.in.

As a part of the investment, Data will be joining the board of the company.

In the fashion e-commerce segment, last month, fashion e-tailer StalkBuyLove raised an undisclosed amount of funding from 500 Startups, Germany-based venture fund Littlerock, early-stage VC fund Singularity Ventures and others. Voonik had raised $5 million (Rs 32 crore) in its Series A round of funding from Sequoia Capital and Seedfund in June 2015. LimeRoad.com, in March last year, raised $30 million in Series C round of funding from Tiger Global and existing investors Matrix Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

"Yufta curates fashion and has an omni-channel approach, wherein we aggregate local shops as well," said Khandelwal. "Data will be helping us with his technology expertise to develop the company further."

Data had earlier invested in Jaipur-based Blue Box Media Pvt Ltd.

Jaipur-based Yufta was founded in 2013 by Ritesh Khandelwal, Ravi Khandelwal and Tarun Sharma. Ritesh Khandewal has a masters degree in computer science and has seven years of work experience in product management and technology while Ravi Khandelwal, a qualified chartered accountant, has earlier worked with Hettich International and Fortis Healthcare. Sharma has earlier worked with MTS.

The company claims to have a gross merchandise value of Rs 6 crore in the past one year, and claims to have shipped more than 1 lakh units till now. At present, Yufta has 12 shops in Jaipur.