Fashion etailer Fashionara closes shop

Online fashion and lifestyle website Fashionara.com seems to have closes its shop as its website and app are no longer accessible. It had recently raised funds from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Helion Venture Partners.

The startup was founded by former Reliance Trends CEO Arun Sirdeshmukh and Munjal, former chief technology officer at Times Internet, in 2012. It raised 4 million (Rs 26.8 crores) in Series A funding from Lightspeed and Helion the same year. The company, Fashionara Enterprises, had secured 7-8 million dollars (Rs 47 to Rs 53.7 crores) from the investors. It had also raised a series B round from the two investors but the amount is not known.

In 2014, the company had tweaked its business model from being a pure-play fashion portal to an online marketplace for fashion products. In fact, its net sales jumped five-fold to Rs 32.86 crore in the financial year 2014-15. However, its net loss widened to Rs 32.13 crore from Rs 21.11 crore in 2013-14. The company credited the surge in sales to the flash sales format that it had adopted. It also spoke about a necessary pivot in favour of e-commerce in luxury fashion products. In its financial statement the company stated that the e-fashion segment is a challenging environment and thus it makes it necessary to review their approach and formal choice.

Fashionara offered products from brands such as Adidas, Reebok, Benetton, Sisley, Nautica, Guess, Lee, Wrangler and Vans. It was in competition with e-tailers likes Myntra, Jabong, Limeroad and Koovs.