Outfittery, a curated shopping service for men’s clothing, has raised $22 million in a new funding round led by London and New York-based VC firm Octopus Ventures. The so-called “U-Start Club” also joined the round — they are an Italian group of investors which incorporates several family offices tied to the fashion industry in the country. You’d expect Italian fashion houses to invest in such a company, right?Existing investors Northzone Capital, Highland Europe, Holtzbrinck Ventures and Mangrove Capital Partners also participated. The startup will use the funds to expand in Europe and improve customer experience. Outfittery has now raised $59.81m in total, in five rounds from twelve Investors.
Julia Boesch, managing director and co-founder says they will continue their “mission to revolutionise the shopping experience for men… in a world where clients are faced with way too many options while shopping.” Which is clearly code for “men can’t really deal with choice,” perhaps.
Founded by Anna Alex and Julia Boesch in 2012, the startup claims now to have 400,000 clients, in eight countries.
Their main competitors include Modomoto which has been acquiring smaller players in order to scale. In the UK the front-runner in this game is Thread.
It’s also interesting, post-Brexit, to see a UK VC investing into a German business. Does this indicate a move by UK investors to diversify their portfolio to continental businesses with access to the single market? Quite possibly.
