Arun Sirdeshmukh, former CEO of Reliance Trends, the apparel retail chain, has ventured into e-commerce business with Fashionara.com

Premium e-fashion gets VC funding

Arun Sirdeshmukh, former CEO of Reliance Trends, the apparel retail chain, has ventured into e-commerce business with Fashionara.com. The site offers premium fashion and lifestyle merchandise and has received funding – the amount remains undisclosed – from venture capital firms Helion Venture Partners and California-based Lightspeed Venture Partners. Sirdeshmukh left Reliance in March 2012 and was joined by Darpan Munjal, a former Sears Holdings Corporation veteran as co-founder and director in the company, Fashionara Enterprises. The portal is banking on features like express shipping within a day, integration with Facebook, product videos and free product returns to gain a major share of the Rs.47,000 crore e-commerce market (as per IAMAI 2011 estimates) in India. “Having done four start-ups, I feel start-ups are in my blood. E-commerce space is very interesting and something I had been studying for years,” Sirdeshmukh said. Munjal, who founded portals like Sears.com (annual turnover: $1.2 billion) and Kmart.com in the US is overseeing the venture’s technological operations, user experience and online marketing. Six executives, including former CFO of Heinz, Phaneendra Burli, former vice president-engineering at Tavant Technologies, Vikas Agarwal, and former Bharti Walmart apparel head Animesh Kumar, are part of the core team at Fashionara. “We genuinely believe we can change a few things in the way people are shopping for fashion. We want to build what could be the most admired e-fashion business. If things are done right, this could be many-hundred crore business,” Sirdeshmukh said. “For the first year or two, we will use the funds to build a robust business. Beyond that, we will need more investments, a second round or even third,” Sirdeshmukh, who spent eight years at Madura Garments and built apparel brands like Louis Philippe, Indigo Nation, Scullers, Urbana and Urban Yoga, said. In 1999, he co-founded Indus-League Clothing that was acquired by Kishore Biyani-led Future Group in 2005. Munjal has over 18 years of experience in building e-commerce companies in the US and India with companies including Sears Holding Corporation, Indiatimes Shopping, LeapMatrix Consulting and Xpedior Inc.