Fashionara receives fund infusion from Helion, Lightspeed

Fashionara.com, the Bangalore-based online portal that offers premium fashion and lifestyle merchandise received capital funding from Helion Venture Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners. The funds raised will be used to build the business. Sources in Fashionara said it would be seeking second and third round of funding.

Founded by Arun Sirdeshmukh and Darpan Munjal, Fashionara.com is an online retailer that offers merchandise in the space of fashion and lifestyle. Its current focus is on apparel, footwear and accessories.

Some of the key brands that Fashionara.com retails are Adidas, Reebok, Benetton, Sisley, Nautica, Guess, Lee, Wrangler, Vans, Jack & Jones, Vera Moda among others. The portal is banking on features like express shipping within a day, integration with Facebook, product videos and free product returns.

Prior to starting Fashionara, Arun Sirdeshmukh was CEO, Reliance Trends Ltd, which is apparel and accessories business of Reliance Retail. He has spent eight years at Madura Garments and built apparel brands like Louis Philippe, Indigo Nation, Scullers, Urbana and Urban Yoga. In 1999, he co-founded Indus-League Clothing which was later acquired by Kishore Biyani-led Future Group in 2005.

Darpan Munjal has earlier founded portals like Sears.com and Kmart.com in the US.

The luxury good segment is seeing major traction. Fashionandyou.com raised $40 million in its third round of funding led by Norwest Venture Partners and Intel Capital. DealsandYou.com raised $17 million from Mayfield Fund and Norwest Venture Partners. Valyoo Technologies Pvt Ltd, which runs e-commerce businesses for eyewear (lenskart.com), watches (watchkart.com) and bags (bagskart.com) raised $4 million from IDG Ventures.