Binny Bansal-backed vogue startup Virgio raises $37mn from Prosus, others

Virgio, a vogue tech startup based by former Myntra chief government Amar Nagaram, has raised $37 million in a Sequence-A funding spherical co-led by Prosus Ventures, Accel and Alpha Wave. The funds will go in direction of additional expertise improvement and hiring.

Based in 2022, Virgio’s mannequin makes use of expertise all through the design, manufacturing and buying processes, to streamline your entire vogue lifecycle and allow real-time choices. The agency is concentrated on Gen-Z and late Millennials.

Mukesh Bansal, Kunal Shah, Binny Bansal, Bhavish Aggarwal, Vidit Aatrey, Sriharsha Majety, Mekin Maheswari and Sameer Nigam are among the many angel traders who participated in earlier rounds.

“Historically, the style trade has operated on depth and low cost fashions,” mentioned Amar Nagaram, CEO and Founding father of Virgio. “Virgio is pioneering the take a look at and scale technique, making runway vogue accessible and inexpensive for all customers, whereas eliminating extra stock for producers.”

Virgio is constructing a vogue tech platform that may permit designers to entry shopper preferences in actual time. Additionally it is envisioning a tech-led community of factories which allow designers to rapidly construct prototypes, get shopper suggestions, and scale up manufacturing.

“There’s a giant underserved marketplace for branded attire in India presently. For instance, for girls, solely 25 per cent of vogue is branded attire,” mentioned Ashutosh Sharma, Head of India Investments, Prosus Ventures. “We’re assured in Virgio’s tech-first mannequin and consider the startup’s professional founding group is uniquely positioned to seize a big alternative in India’s vogue trade.”

Virgio mentioned that its mannequin has condensed the 8-10-month lead time to only one month, whereas its app has over 100,000 downloads. Seeing early success on its Singles’ Day sale final month, between November 11-13, Virgio supplied over 2,000 new types. It noticed over 1 million new customers on the platform through the occasion, along with over 20,000 each day energetic customers.

Subrata Mitra, Associate at Accel mentioned India has a sturdy manufacturing base and is among the largest exporters of textiles globally. “We consider the time is ripe for this group to quickly undertake digital practices, on condition that we’re popping out of the pandemic that’s accelerated tech adoption throughout the board,” mentioned Mitra.