US-based fashion e-commerce platform Moda Operandi has completed a $165m funding round featuring luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, having been previously backed by a range of corporate investors in the past.
This latest round, co-led by Apax Digital, C Ventures and K11 Investment, also included financial services group Fidelity and New Enterprise Associates.
Founded in 2011, Moda Operandi runs an online platform that enables users to pre-order designer models while clothes are still being shown on the runway, and also offers curated recommendations.
The company’s earlier backers include media group Advance Publications, LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy) and Fidelity.
The fashion, apparel and accessories space has been an attractive one for corporate venturers in recent years. As the historical bar chart from GCV Analytics shows, the deal count in this space seems to have plateaued at just over 50 rounds per year since 2015 while the overall funding in corporate-backed rounds is rising. By the time of writing it had effectively reached $5.67bn for 2017.
