Bangalore-based online footwear brand, Rapawalk that offers a personalised service to its customers has raised $300,000 in its seed round led by one of India's largest angel investment platforms, Inflection Point Ventures (IPV).
The funds raised will be focused on scaling up Rapawalk's business. The venture plans to continue to expand its online business for the coming 12-15 months and also offer an omnichannel shopping experience to its customers. This also marks IPV's 18th investment since March this year.
Vinay Bansal, founder, and chief executive officer, IPV said, "We believe in the growth story of customised footwear in India, especially with our insight that every customer's foot is different, and standard shoe sizes are not enough for the discerning customer. Rapawalk being in the D2C segment offers a great personalised footwear design and shopping experience while managing the entire customer journey. Their light inventory business model and continued growth path on online platforms stand Rapawalk in good stead to reach further heights."
The digital-first footwear brand, founded in 2018 by IIM-Ahmedabad alumni, Kashif Mohammad and Aravind Maddireddy, counts marquee investors like Raveen Sastry, co-founder Myntra, Sanjay Ramakrishnan, former marketing chief, Myntra and Ravi Garikipati, former CTO, Flipkart, among others.
Kashif Mohammad, co-founder, and chief executive officer, Rapawalk said, "Personalisation is the future of fashion. We want to give the ultimate power to every customer to create their own footwear, thereby giving them an immersive shopping experience. Footwear shopping always had inherent challenges related to fitting, we at Rapawalk are driven by the vision to make footwear for all foot shapes and sizes."
He added, "Since our launch, we have seen a much stronger demand for personalised footwear. We are committed to our vision of bringing product and sizing innovation and become the top footwear brand in the country. We are delighted to partner with IPV towards building Rapawalk, we believe, we will benefit massively from IPV's strong ecosystem of leaders."
Kashif tells us that Rapawalk's bespoke service, made-to-fit products, and inventory light business model ensure a personalised experience for customers. Founded in 2018, the company recorded 15X growth in sales volume in the last financial year, with a 40 percent cumulative monthly growth rate.
Footwear in India is currently over a $6 billion market growing at a fast 14.5 percent on a yearly basis. Branded footwear is only 45 percent of the market and is outpacing the unbranded footwear at a 19 percent YoY growth. Online penetration of the footwear sales stands at a small 11 percent, but is experiencing an accelerated growth of 27 percent YoY.
(Edited by : Jomy)
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