[Funding alert] Fashion retailer High Street Essentials raises Rs 40 crore in funding

Fashion retailer company High Street Essentials, has raised Rs 40 crore in mix of equity and debt funding round from venture debt firm Stride Ventures.

Through this funding, the company is entering India’s premium occasion wear category, the IndyaLuxe and its range includes occasion and festive wear, priced between Rs 6,500 to Rs 18,000.

It will also invest in expanding the company’s offline footprint.

Delhi-based High Street Essentials (HSE) was founded in 2012 by Shivani Poddar and Tanvi Malik, It offers fast fashion through its omnichannel retail model.

HSE which owns women’s fashion brands, FabAlley and Indya, and and its fast fashion is a business model that basically brings recent fashion trends into retail stores by mass-producing them at low cost and quickly when demand increases.

“Indya Luze is a completely new segment for us and so far there is no organised player in the segment…In the last two years, buying pattern has changed massively and this business will augur well for the company”, said, Shivani Poddar, cofounder and CEO of High Street Essentials.

“We have a significant Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) business to international customers through our website and we will be expanding both online and offline expansion internationally”, he added.

The fashion house plans to double its offline presence in the next 12-18 months by adding 30 more exclusive brand outlets, company-owned stores and franchises and another 100 shop-in-shops to large format stores.

It is also looking to expand offline into international markets with its first physical store in Malaysia.

On its offline side, the company has markets in Middle East and South East Asia and on the other hand in online, around 55% of D2C demand comes from the US and the startup is seeing good traction in Canada and Australia as well.

The company forayed into new categories such as fashion masks, loungewear and formal keyboarded-up dressing options amid the first COVID-19 wave in 2020.

HSE forayed into the personal care segment in 2021 with the launch of its in-house brand, Indya Skin Care.

“The investment has come at the right time as we kick start our next leg of success with key category expansions and scaling our offline and online presence to further solidify our position as a leading women’s lifestyle and fashion retail company”, also said, Poddar.

In May 2021, High Street Essentials had raised Rs 25.5 crore in funding round from existing investors Elevation Capital, India Quotient, Dominor Holding and family offices.

About High Street Essentials

Founded in 2012, High Street Essentials (HSE) owns and operates an international house of brands, which includes FabAlley and House of Indya. HSE is united by a common mission to make great design accessible to millennial women across the globe and to lead the way towards a more inclusive and fashion-forward world.

With over $18million in venture funding from partners such as Elevation Capital, India Quotient, and Dominor Holding, HSE is trailblazing the path to rapid national and international expansion. Retailing its products across its own websites, online marketplaces, 32 brand-owned stores, and 500 offline retail touch-points, HSE has established itself as one of India’s leading omni-channel fashion houses.