Social commerce startup Stage3 has raised Rs 20 crore ($2.65 million) in a pre-Series A funding round co-led by Inflection Point Ventures and LC Nueva Investment Partners LLP, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
Lets Venture and Stanford Angels also invested in the funding round, the statement said. Existing investor Blume Ventures has also participated in this investment round, it added.
Other angel investors who pooled in capital in this funding round include Ananth Narayanan, Founder, Mensa Brands, Dinesh Aggarwal, CEO of India Mart and Sashwat Nakhrani, Co-founder of Bharat Pe, it said.
The company is planning to use the fresh capital to improve its technology infrastructure, hire and build data science capabilities.
"Our vision at Stage3 is to build the next generation of fashion commerce for young India that is social, personalized and influencer led," said Sabena Puri, Co-Founder and CEO, Stage3.
Stage3, operated by Technicolour Dream Pants Pvt Ltd, was founded by Puri and Sanchit Baweja in 2017. It is a full-stack social commerce marketplace for fashion and lifestyle powering the creator economy and providing influencers and small brands an end-to-end platform to launch and run a social store. The startup also has a high-growth label Alaya by Stage3.
Prior to this, Stage3 raised $2 million (around Rs 14.18 crore) in a funding round led by Blume Ventures in 2019.
Stage3 has registered a year-on-year growth of 200%, with current annual recurring revenue (ARR) of $3 million (approximately Rs 22 crore) and a gross margin of 70% across the platform, the statement noted. The company said it has witnessed a 30% increase in its follower base across its social media platforms in the last 12 months, it added.
It expects to achieve an ARR of $6-7 million (around Rs 45-52 crore) by March 2022, the statement said.
"Indian consumers are already moving to online shopping in an accelerated manner and as technology helps e-commerce companies to extend offline experience elements, the next big disruption in the e-commerce value chain will be driven by social commerce and user-generated recommendations,” said Ankur Mittal, Co-Founder, Inflection Point Ventures.
Founded in 2018, Inflection Point Ventures is an angel investing platform. It planned to invest Rs 155 crore in 2021 across 60 startups.
Recently, Inflection Point Ventures backed digital mortgage platform LoanKuber and software as a service (SaaS) data management platform Parablu Inc.
LC Nueva is an India domiciled Category II alternative investment fund (AIF) that is awaiting approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The fund will invest in early-stage tech enabled businesses.
In October, LC Nueva invested in Trica, a new business entity of dealmaking platform LetsVenture.
