German fashion startup Lesara files for insolvency

German online fashion and lifestyle products startup Lesara has filed for insolvency at its headquarters in Berlin.

The company’s co-founder for insolvency proceedings in self-administration for Lesara AG and logistics subsidiary Lesara Logistics at the district court of Berlin-Charlottenburg. All major expenditures and decisions must now be approved first by Potsdam attorney Christian Graf Brockdorff, the trustee appointed by the court, explains the ‘Handelsblatt’.

Founded in 2013, the fashion retailer raised a total of circa 85 million euros in funding. Earlier this year, Lesara secured 30 million euros from existing investors like Northzone, Mangrove Capital Partners and Vorwerk Ventures. The last funding round was used for expanding its logistics.

In August of this year, the company opened its very first own distribution center, which cost 45 million euros to build, according to the company’s past corporate releases.

‘EU Startups’ highlighted that all indicates that investors did not want to invest further capital in the growing but unprofitable business. The trigger for the company’s insolvency filing was a much needed but cancelled 10 million euros bridge financing round, according to the startup news website.

The business model of Lesara is to offer trendy but cheap fashion and lifestyle products, which the company bought directly from manufacturers and suppliers in China. Lesara’s online store was already targeting 10 European countries, with a big budget allocated to marketing and branding initiatives.

For many, this comes as a surprise, as the online store grew very fast and just opened a new logistics centre. And earlier this month, co-founder Roman Kirsch, was very optimistic and talking about future growth for the company at a trade event in London.

Lesara has dedicated ecommerce websites in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Sweden, and Denmark.