This article was published on October 17, 2012

Indian online kidswear retailer Unamia raises $1.2 million in seed funding


Indian online kidswear retailer Unamia raises $1.2 million in seed funding

The rise of fashion ecommerce in the US has spawned a number of popular kids clothes sites, something that is equally true of other markets such as India, where startup Unamia has today announced $1.2 million in seed funding.

The Bangalore-based startup, founded by graduates of NIFT, Stanford and IIT has taken on the fresh capital from Blume Ventures and AngelPrime, as Tech Circle reports. The latter investor had originally put an undisclosed amount into the startup in May; the round has now been closed and made official.

Unamia CEO and co-founder Jyotsna Pattabiraman went on record with her delight at linking up with the two VC firms and their collective know-how and experience, saying:

“AngelPrime and Blume Ventures can be credited with building innovative, scalable and highly profitable online businesses across India. They understand the opportunities and the challenges involved in building a company. These investors have backed firms and been part of huge successes, and it’s heartening that they see the potential in us.”

The company competes with a number of others in India’s kid retail market — including Inkyponky, FirstCry, Hushbabies. Blume Ventures’ Karthik Reddy says that the VC firm is upbeat about the potential of India’s ecommerce industry, despite a national Internet penetration rate of less than 10 percent.

“At a time when me-too e-commerce sites are running out of options, Blume believes that the e-commerce story is yet to be told. We are actively investing in companies who have differentiated capabilities, like Unamia. We are delighted to have Unamia join the Blume family.”

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In the US, ThredUP recently raised a $14.5 million Series C round, taking it to a total of $23 million in invested capital. A number of general fashion sites are making big moves, most notably the subscription-based, celebrity-backed startup JustFab, which raised a whopping $76 million in July.

Headline image via Flickr / 401(k) 2012

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