European curated shopping service Outfittery has raised USD22 million in new funding.
The backing comes from London and New York-based venture capital firm Octopus Ventures, which is leading the round, as well as the U-Start Club, an Italian group including some of the world’s most renowned fashion families.
Existing investors Northzone Capital, Highland Europe, Holtzbrinck Ventures and Mangrove Capital Partners have also joined the round. The company wants to use the fresh capital to further expand its leadership position within the European curated shopping market and improve customer experience.
“In 2012, we founded Outfittery with the mission to revolutionise the shopping experience for men. In a world where clients are faced with way too many options while shopping, we aim to create an individual, and hassle-free shopping experience that is fun,” says Julia Boesch, managing director and co-founder of Outfittery. “This latest financing round affirms that we’re on the right track and we’re very proud to have both Octopus Ventures and U-Start Club involved. With their support, we can now expand our market leadership position in curated shopping and further improve the service experience for our clients.”
Outfittery uses a combination of personal advice through stylists and technology in order to offer an individual service. The new funds will mainly be invested in developing its product and further growth.
“Outfittery is a business that we've admired for a while, particularly its extraordinary growth of more than 100 per cent in their fourth year, and we are excited to have the opportunity to work with the Outfittery team,” says Rebecca Hunt of Octopus Ventures. “The business fits well with our goal of investing in the fastest growing companies from across Europe from the very earliest stages of company formation through to the later stages of growth and expansion.”
Stefano Guidotti, CEO of U-Start, adds: “The future of fashion retail lies in a highly qualitative, individualised and relevant offering for the client. We are convinced that Outfittery has found the right way to bring exactly this service and quality back into retail, particularly e-commerce, and that through this they have found the right way to give men access to fashion in a sleek, frictionless way.”
Outfittery, which was founded by Anna Alex and Julia Boesch in 2012, has 400,000 clients in eight countries.
