Stage 3 goes in for more funding, eyes $2.5 mn in fresh round

Stage 3, a platform for renting and buying designer outfits at a discounted price, is looking to raise USD 2.5 million in a fresh round of funding as it ramps up operations and opens offline stores.
The company, founded by Sabena Puri, Sanchit Baweja and designer Rina Dhaka in March 2016, has plans to open 15 stores in the next 2-3 years in metro cities.
"We are on the verge of closing another round of funding in the next 2-3 months. We are looking at raising USD 2.5 million. We will use these funds for building our brand and offline expansion," Puri told PTI.

In the previous round, Stage 3 had raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from investors, including Nisha Kumar, the ex-CFO of Rent the Runway and AOL/Time Warner Inc, Puneet Dalmia, MD of Dalmia Cement (in his personal capacity), and Balaji Prabhakar, professor of computer science at Stanford University and Chief Scientist at Urban Engines.
The company, which operates one store in Delhi, is also looking to rapidly expand its inventory to 2,000 pieces of clothing by next year from about 500, co-founder Baweja said.
The company rents and sells new sample pieces and gently-used outfits from well-known designers such as Manish Malhotra, Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Ridhima Bhasin and Ridhi Mehra.