Luxury fashion house raises $10 million, looks to expand its footprint globally

The funding round was led by angel investor Akash Bhansali, with participation from actor Madhuri Dixit Nene, Alpha Wave Global’s Navroz Udwadia, Sid Yog of Xander Group, among others. Purple Style Labs plans to open retail stores in New York and Dubai in the next 12-18 months

Purple Style Labs (PSL), owner of Pernia’s Pop-Up Shop, an omni-channel luxury fashion company has raised $10 million in Series B-round from actor Madhuri Dixit Nene and a clutch of investors.  

The Series-B round has been led by Akash Bhansali, director, Enam Holdings and has seen participation from renowned investors like the actor, Navroz Udwadia, co-founder of Alpha Wave Global; Yuj Ventures; Sid Yog, founder, of the Xander Group; Rahul Garg, partner at Premji Invest; Mukul Agrawal, founder of Param Capital, among others. 

Madhuri Dixit Nene said, “India has always had a rich history in culture, and this has constantly seeped into the fashion industry. This thought has been brought into the forefront by PSL as they have given a new meaning and outlook to India’s luxury fashion industry. Their biggest asset is recognising Indian designers and giving them an international platform to be discovered.” 

Abhishek (Monty) Agarwal, PSL’s founder, had acquired Pernia’s Pop-Up Shop about four years ago. He said 75% of the company’s online sales come from international markets. The omni-channel platform currently retails about 800 designer brands including designers such as Tarun Tahiliani, Anita Dongre, Rohit Bal, Ritu Kumar, Gaurav Gupta, Amit Aggarwal, Masaba and Anushree Reddy amongst others. 

Agarwal said, “While most Indian designers have been able to build strong brand equity with consumers, they have been unable to make it commercially viable and scale up to becoming a large business. Sensing this opportunity in the industry, combined with a personal interest in luxury fashion led to the inception of Purple Style Labs. Hence, our thesis since inception has been to build an Indian luxury fashion house, which takes Indian-origin designers to a global scale”. 

PSL has opened 10 Pernia’s Pop-Up Studio experience centres of which three each are in Delhi and Mumbai. The company also has stores in Bangalore; Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and one in London, UK. 

The company had also launched a new vertical for multi-designer men’s clothing and accessories. It has two stores in Mumbai by the name Pernia’s Pop-Up Studio for Men. Agarwal said the company is in the process of launching its next menswear store in Ahmedabad. It even acquired the fashion label Wendell Rodricks in December 2020. The brand has three stores in Mumbai.   

The company is currently expanding its existing footprint in Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad, along with opening in new cities such as Chennai and Surat. PSL further plans to expand in international markets, with retail stores in New York and Dubai within the next 12-18 months.

According to data from research firm McKinsey’s ‘FashionScope’, India’s apparel market will be worth $59.3 billion this year, making it the sixth largest in the world, comparable to the United Kingdom’s ($65 billion) and Germany’s ($63.1 billion).