Fashion discovery platform SummerLabel raises seed funding

Gurgaon-based fashion and lifestyle discovery platform SummerLabel has raised Rs 1 crore ($150,000) in seed funding from a clutch of high net worth individuals, the company said in a press statement.

Aneesh Seth, director at web development firm 23bytes, and Tushar Mittal, founder of design studio FiveWaters, were among the investors who participated in this round, a company spokesperson told VCCircle.

Operated by Abrax Retail Pvt Ltd, SummerLabel plans to use the funds to strengthen its technology backbone and build a robust network of private labels, users and influencers, besides expanding its team.

Founded in October 2015 by Chandigarh-based businessman Apaksh Gupta and former Miss India World, Vanya Mishra, SummerLabel is an aggregator of online and offline private label stores with an 'omni-channel discovery mechanism. Its 7,500 registered users have access to over one million private labels in India, and can search for stores by name or speciality.

"Building a one-stop fashion destination for its users, SummerLabel features extensive profiles of lesser known home-grown private labels – from their specialties and store locations, to price range and details such as store opening and closing timings," said Gupta.

SummerLabel has tie-ups with over 120 stores. The startup aims to reach Rs 35 lakh in revenues by December 2017.

"The idea is to build a platform where fashion enthusiasts can come together to discover home-grown private labels and share the latest fashion and lifestyle trends. With this funding we will focus on building the best-in-class influencer marketing tool, PoS and a loyalty programme tool for private labels to help them increase their revenues. We will also focus on expanding our team and the SummerLabel community," said Gupta.

Online-to-offline is seen as the next big thing in India's rapidly evolving e-commerce space. In 2015, the market saw several brands as well as startups, such as Fynd, Zakoopi, Fashalot, Shouut, and Bengaluru-based Retale, upping their game in the O2O segment.

Most recently, fashion portal Fynd, run by Shopsense Technologies Pvt Ltd, raised an undisclosed amount from Facebook executive Anand Chandrasekaran.