Sistema Asia Fund, a subsidiary of diversified conglomerate Sistema, has led an $8m series B round for India-based fashion e-commerce app developer Wooplr Technologies, the Economic Times reported yesterday.
Private equity firm Amereus Group and venture capital firm Helion Venture Partners also participated in the round. An undisclosed source had previously told Russian daily Vedomosti that Sistema invested $3m but claimed the round was sized at $6m.
Founded in 2013 as a hyperlocal services discovery platform, Wooplr subsequently pivoted to become a social commerce platform revolving around fashion.
Roughly 10,000 fashion influencers, such as stylists or beauty bloggers, have profiles on the platform. They can be followed by other users and their clothes can be bought through the app, which also has partnerships with about 200 brands.
Dhruv Kapoor, Sistema Asia Fund’s managing director, said: “SAF’s philosophy is to back established or emerging leaders in technology, technology-enabled and consumer brand businesses.
“In Wooplr, we found an emerging leader in the socially driven commerce space with its lean marketplace model and high virality quotient.”
Wooplr had raised $225,000 in seed capital before Helion provided $5m of series A funding in early 2015.
Angel investors Naveen Tewari, Abhay Singhal, Amit Gupta, Piyush Shah, Raghunandan G and Rajiv Mehta added an undisclosed sum in March 2016 before being joined by Astarc Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of automotive services provider Astarc Group, in October.