Mukesh Bansal, who founded ventures such as Myntra and Cultfit, is in advanced stages to close a $50 million Series A round from marquee investors such as Peak XV Partners (previously Sequoia India) and Accel, people familiar with the development said.
The new venture that Bansal is working on, along with Mohit Gupta, will be in the premium fashion space aimed at Gen Z, an increasingly attractive segment for e-commerce players. Gupta was previously the co-founder of Zomato where he led the company’s food delivery business, which helped sharpen his expertise in supply-chain.
Bansal on the other hand has had several e-commerce experiences. He started off with fashion portal Myntra and has also invested in Virgio, a Gen Z-focused fashion destination founded by Amar Nagaram, a former Myntra executive. Bansal even joined Tata Digital as president in 2021 to help scale the company's e-commerce ambitions but has stepped back from an active role. Bansal's entry into Tata came right after the salt-to-software conglomerate invested $75 million in Cultfit.
“Peak XV is likely to lead the round, with participation from Accel. Mukesh has been talking to multiple investors and is looking to raise $40-$50 million at a post money valuation of $100 million," one of the persons cited above said.
Further, Gupta will be based in Delhi to drive execution, while Bansal will be based in Bengaluru and will continue to oversee Cultfit.
While Bansal declined to comment on Moneycontrol’s queries, Peak XV Partners and Accel did not respond.
Gen Z: A 'critical cohort'
The new project will be a venture studio model where Meraki Labs will be the holding company and incubate a couple of ventures within its ecosystem. Bansal’s Meraki Labs collaborates with a network of individuals and companies to identify needs and build products. It already works with Skyroot, Groww, Gigforce, and several other startups.
Bansal and Gupta wanting to focus on the Gen Z category, however, does not come as a surprise. This cohort spends a considerable time on the internet and has a higher disposable income.
One in three online shoppers is Gen Z and they mostly purchase fashion as the first category online, at entry price points, according to a report by Bain & Co. In 2022, the consultancy firm said Gen Z will become “a critical cohort in the future” for all things e-commerce, especially fashion, as needs are fast-changing.
That explains why leading players in online fashion – Flipkart Fashion and Myntra – both have also rolled out dedicated services for the Gen Z cohort. While Myntra launched FWD in May, Flipkart announced Spoyl on August 17.
Techcrunch had previously reported that Bansal and Gupta were talking to a bunch of investors and were valuing their company at $100-$250 million, but they had no specific plans then. Bansal had denied all such talks.
“Media speculation about my next venture (is) completely wrong. I continue to be very excited about (the) Curefit (now Cultfit) journey and committed for the long run. Meraki Labs is my investment arm that has done investments such as Groww, Skyroot and Virgio," Bansal had said back in June.
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