Delhi-based fashion house, High Street Essentials Pvt. Ltd. (HSE), the parent company behind women’s fashion brands, FabAlley and Indya, has raised Rs 20.75 crore in a Pre-Series C round of funding led by its existing investors, SAIF Partners and India Quotient. This round is a convertible note which will be converted during the Series C raise. The latest infusion of capital comes shortly after the company raised Rs 8 crore in venture debt from Trifecta Capital in January 2020.
The new round of funding has also seen participation from Abhishek Dalmia and several high repute family offices.
Started in 2012 by Shivani Poddar and Tanvi Malik, HSE has pioneered fast fashion in the country and is among the first Indian fashion retailers to have a robust omnichannel retail model. HSE’s brands, FabAlley, Indya, and Zyra currently retail through their websites, horizontal online marketplaces, large format chains such as Lifestyle and Central, along with more than 30 Exclusive Brand Outlets across the country. During FY20, HSE has scaled up its retail footprint with 13 new Indya stores and five FabAlley stores, along with expanding both brands to over 400 shop-in-shops across the country.
The new capital raised will be utilized for expanding the brands’ D2C footprint with new initiatives such as a subscription-based shopping experience, and catalogue curation with AI-based recommendations based on customers’ affinity and data mining.
The company has also ventured into new categories that are pertinent to the current situation such as fashion masks, lounge-wear, and formal keyboard-up dressing options. HSE’s Indya brand has seen massive online growth internationally during the last fiscal year, which will be harnessed further by adding localized offers, currencies, and payment methods. Technology has been the backbone of the company in the last 8 years and will continue to be strengthened to deliver a stellar customer experience, across channels.
Speaking on the occasion, Shivani Poddar and Tanvi Malik, Co-Founders, HSE said, “We value the continued support of our investors and customers, who have been crucial to our success. In the midst of this unprecedented global crisis, we are working hard to ensure that we leverage all our assets such as our nimble supply chain, data-led designing and sharp focus on customer experience so that HSE emerges as a leading fashion retail company in the industry.”
Mukul Arora, Partner, SAIF Partners said, “FY20 was a great year for HSE where we saw strong growth in both FabAlley and Indya while remaining profitable. It has also been inspiring to see the way Shivani and Tanvi have navigated through the challenges caused by the pandemic. Post reopening in June, we are already seeing healthy recovery across channels.”
HSE reported net revenue of Rs 90.2 crore in FY19, with an EBITDA of Rs 3.3 crore and a PAT of Rs 1.3 core. FabAlley and Indya have posted healthy top-line growth in FY20, even with the disruption caused due to the pandemic and are on track to close their books at a 50 percent Y-O-Y growth.
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