Voonik raises funds from Sequoia, RB Investments

Voonik has raised $6 million; funds will be utilized to scale up its men’s and premium segments, which were launched last year

Startup Voonik Technologies Pvt. Ltd, owner of the Voonik fashion app, has raised $6 million (Rs40 crore) from Singapore-based RB Investments and existing investor Sequoia Capital, two people aware of the development said.

The latest round is a follow-on to its Series B round of $20 million in July, led by Sequoia Capital, said one of the two people cited above, requesting anonymity. Other investors in Voonik’s previous round included Times Internet, Seedfund, Beenos, Beenext, Parkwood Bespin, Tancom Investments and Freecharge’s Kunal Shah.

“RB Investments has invested close to $4 million in this round, while existing investor Sequoia has put in around $2 million,” said the first person. The funds will be utilized to scale up its men’s and premium segments, which were launched last year, he added.

The company had raised a $5 million Series A round of funding from Sequoia India and early-stage investment fund Seedfund in 2015.

Sequoia Capital declined to comment. Emails sent to Sujayath Ali, founder of Voonik, did not elicit any response. Emails sent to RB Investments too went unanswered.

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The company competes with social commerce fashion portal Limeroad, besides larger rivals Myntra, Jabong, Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal. E-commerce sales in India are expected to grow from $14 billion in 2015 to $55 billion in 2018, according to a report in December 2015 by marketing research firm eMarketer.

The company runs a lean marketplace business where it operates without inventory and fulfilment centres.

In June last year, Voonik announced the acquisition of three startups in the fashion space—Zohraa, Styl and Picksilk—to enter the premium e-commerce segment. The company did not disclose the size of the deals, which were acqui-hires.

Before these, Voonik also acqui-hired TrialKart, Getsy and a team from apparel rental startup Klozee.

RB Investments is the investment arm of Singapore-based entrepreneur Rajesh Bothra, who runs an IT distribution company Kobian Pte Ltd. Kobian sells computer components, peripherals and lifestyle products under the Mercury brand.

The Singapore-based venture capital firm has made more than a dozen investments in India so far. Some of its recent investments in India include food-tech startup Swiggy, tech-enabled hotel chain FabHotels.com, online jewellery retailer Bluestone.com, online retailer of branded Indian food products Delight Foods, online furniture startup CapriCoast.com and laundry services start-up 5-a-sec.

Earlier this week, Holiday Triangle Travel Pvt. Ltd, which operates TravelTriangle.com, announced that it has raised $10 million in a Series B round led by RB Investments. In June, RB Investments led a $6 million round in PrettySecrets.com, a Mumbai-based online lingerie platform.