Social network firm Roposo raises $5 mn

Fashion-focused social network Roposo.com on Thursday announced raising $5 million (Rs.31 crore) in fresh round (series A) of funding from global venture investor Tiger Global.

As a brand of Relevant E-solutions, Gurgaon-based Roposo website allows women to shop for new products online and its trends are liked, curated, personalised and updated daily from an array of online brands and e-commerce portals.

The start-up's venture partners Indian Quotient and e-retailer Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal also participated in the new round of funding.

Co-founded by three IIT-Delhi veterans -- Mayank Bhangadia, former Zomato.com chief technology officer Avinash Saxena and Kaushal Shubhank -- the social network is a one-stop destination for fashion addicts, offering a variety of choices from 145 web stores, with dresses ranging from apparel to footwear, accessories and lingerie.

Roposo had raised an unspecified amount earlier from India Quotient, 5ideas, Start-up Superfuel and angel investor Bansal.

"We have created an online playroom with fashion products and a hangout for fashion addicts around it.

We want our network to be better than Google and Facebook for fashion searches," co-founder Mayank Bhangadia said in a statement here.

The start-up hopes that fashion seekers will make its website their default fashion-search engine.

"As fashion discovery is an untouched space in India, our tech team has come with ways to make this search intuitive," Roposo chief executive and co-founder Saxena said on the occasion.

The funding will also help the social network strengthen its product.

With browsers spending about 200 minutes (three hours and 20 minutes) on their platform, the social network is a leader in fashion search in the country.

"Brands and marketplaces are shifting to social platforms like Facebook from generic platforms. Fashion-focused brands like StalkBuyLove have profile on our platform, where they create content stories for fashion-seeking audience," Shubhank noted.

As an independent contract manufacturing and sourcing group, the US-based Tiger Global has $6 billion of assets under management and strong presence in the Silicon Valley.

An early stage venture capital initiative, 5ideas invests in human capital and social capital to deliver value in the seed stage, while Startup Superfuel, launched by former Fashion and You chief executive Pearl Uppal and Gaurav Kachru, is a platform aimed at fuelling the tech start-up ecosystem in India.

Set up in June 2012 by Anand Lunia, India Quotient invests in very early stage startups that are discovering a revenue model, pricing, product or strategy.