Europe’s leading curated shopping service Outfittery has raised about €20 million in new funding. The Berlin-based startup uses a combination of personal advice through stylists and technology in order to offer an individual service to every client. The fresh capital will mainly be invested in developing the product and further growth.
The backing comes from London and New York-based VC firm Octopus Ventures, which lead the round. It was joined by the Italian fashion group U-Start Club. Also existing investors – Northzone Capital, Highland Europe, Holtzbrinck Ventures and Mangrove Capital Partners – joined the round.
Rebecca Hunt of Octopus Ventures: “Outfittery is a business that we’ve admired for a while, particularly its extraordinary growth of more than 100% in their fourth year. We are excited to have the opportunity to work with the team. 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.”
Outfittery makes it easier for men to shop for fashion online. Customers simply answer a few questions about their clothing style and sizes in web page. Stylists then personally contact them and put together individual outfits which are conveniently shipped to their homes. The customers then keep whatever they like and send the rest back. Outfittery offers this innovative service free of charge. The Berlin-based company was founded in 2012 by Julia Bösch and Anna Alex and now employs 300 people. 150 style experts are solely dedicated to the fashion desires of their customers. Over 100 high-quality fashion brands are currently on offer. The company is active in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden and Denmark. More than 400.000 men have used it’s services. In 2015, Outfittery co-founder Anna Alex was a speaker at our annual EU-Startups Conference.
Julia Boesch, managing director and co-founder of Outfittery stated: “We founded the company 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. 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.”