Prachalit Infomedia Pvt Ltd, which founded
Shopwati, an Online Fashion Community has raised an undisclosed amount in a seed round from Sanjiv Rai of SRKK Advisors.
The bootstrapped startup will use this round to fund the next phase of technology development and reach out to customers & vendors in cities outside Delhi.
Shopwati is India’s First Fashion “E-Commerce in Reverse” Portal, creating a unique platform for women shoppers and vendors to explore fashion. Built around conversations, the Shopwati community helps its users find products, take a poll on what to buy & discover fashion.
Ankit Bajaj, Co-Founder & CEO, expresses his vision for Shopwati, “We aim to build a strong community which helps each other make better fashion choices. Unlike every other Fashion Discovery App, Shopwati is not just about finding fashion inspiration, it aims to help people who want to act on it,”
What started as a group of close friends and family, grew into a huge community, from discussing fashion finds across Delhi to getting suggestions on what to wear and where to buy it from.
Today, Shopwati is a 50,000+ member strong community, which comprises of Stylists, Bloggers, Private Labels, Designers, Brands and 1000s of other users talking about fashion. They also recently launched the preview of their Android App with 1000 invites that were exhausted in 2 hours of the launch.
Mehak Suri, Co-Founder & COO believes “Most of the women know what they will wear for that wedding/event 2 months later, what they don’t know is where to buy it from, and we see that as a huge opportunity. On Shopwati 1000s of vendors respond back to queries of users looking for clothes, makeup, accessories, footwear or gift ideas.”
Shopwati today addresses over 300 queries everyday and with a GMV of over Rs. 1.5 crore in less than 6 months, they are doing more business than some of the biggest names in the fashion discovery space. They claim that more than 95% queries get answered in 24 hours and the conversion rate is over 35%. To be on the platform, vendors have to pay an Annual Subscription Fee since most of the transactions happen offline and Shopwati takes no commission on the sales.
Akriti Garg, Chief Content Officer adds “Our Shopwatis are women who are 23 and above. These women are settled, opinionated and have a lot going on in their lives – marriage, social events, professional events, etc. These women have little to no time and there was a gap in the market wherein no one was catering to their styling and fashion needs. This is where Shopwati steps in, we & the community give these women honest opinions and our designers cater to their style and requirements at their convenience without having to spend hours in a market.”
Shopwati looks to leverage the power of lots of fashion-interested people in helping individuals find the stylish clothes & accessories they are looking for. Users can simply post what they are looking for and vendors, users and bloggers help in finding the best deal.
Started in April 2008 by Sanjiv Rai, SRKK is a boutique investment company that began with a motive of funding pre-revenue early stage companies. They currently have 5 companies in their portfolio and have aggressive plans to expand.
