Smytten, an online discovery platform, has raised $1.5 million (approx INR 10 crore) in a fresh funding round from Roots Ventures, reported Inc42.
The startup Smytten will use the fresh funds to expand the user base, infrastructure and offline presence. While, the total funding raised by the platform after this round has reached $3 million (approx INR 21 crore).
“The next big thing is information plus experience. Our focus is on brand and customer interaction rather than ecommerce,” Swagata Sarangi, co-founder at Smyttten, said.
Smytten was founded by Swagata Sarangi and Siddhartha Nangia in 2015. It is an online discovery platform for premium products and services. Smytten offers assisted shopping by curating offerings for consumers as per their preferences, which is done through the startup’s backend algorithm that focuses on analytics.
The company Smytten claims to provide one million monthly sampling orders to consumers from a warehouse in Ahmedabad. It now plans to open warehouses in Gurugram and Bengaluru soon.
Smytten offers lifestyle products and services in health and fitness, beauty and grooming, luxury stays, and premium services.
Furthermore, as per the report by Technavio, the Indian online fashion market is estimated to hit $12 Bn-$14 Bn by 2020. With the rise of social media and ecommerce platforms, more and more users are buying apparel online, including from homegrown brands.
While, another report claimed that the Indian beauty industry is looking towards a market value of $12.4 Bn (INR 80,000 Cr) by 2017-2018 and is expected to grow at a rate of 15% to 20%.
Some of the other significant startup under the similar roof include Nykaa, NewU, RangeMe, UnBxd, and many more.