Sequoia leads $20m Series B for India's Voonik

Seedfund, which participated along with Sequoia in Voonik's $5 million Series A round last year, also took part, as did Times Internet, Beenos and Beenext. The investment comes as Voonik integrates the staffs of Zohraa, Styl and Picksilk, the online fashion start-ups that it acquired earlier this month.

The company will use the capital to improve the customer experience, particularly the personalization features of their supporting technology. Voonik's platform recommends brands and products to users based on their profile and preference; it serves as an aggregator for multiple online retailers, but processes orders through its own checkout system.

Founded in 2013, Voonik claims to have reached $100 million in annual gross merchandise value, with a revenue run rate of $13 million. Since the Series A round it has entered men's fashion with the app Mr Voonik, and launched Vilara, a marketplace for premium boutiques and designers. The company has more than 10 million registered users, and provides 1.5 million products from more than 15,000 sellers.

Voonik is one of several platforms competing in India's online fashion space; rivals include Roposo, which raised a $15 million round from Tiger Global last year and a $5 million commitment from Bertelsmann India Investments in April.

The growth of these smaller apps comes amid difficulties for the country's larger e-commerce players. Flipkart has been marked down twice this year, first by T. Rowe Price and then by Morgan Stanley, which also marked it down last year. Furthermore, Rocket Internet cut the valuation for its emerging markets-focused fashion portal Global Fashion Group, which includes India's Jabong, in April.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Consumer
• Technology
• Early-stage
• Venture
• India
• Sequoia Capital
• TMT