StyleDotMe : Fashion Tech Startup that Revolutionized Jewelry Shopping Experience Raises New Funding of 3.5 Crore

With the immersive media market booming in India, Augmented reality and virtual reality are drastically changing consumer experiences of varied sectors. Undoubtedly, the pandemic would have been intolerable in more ways than one if the online shopping and retail outlets didn’t come to our rescue. Gurgaon based fashion tech startup StyleDotMe has availed augmented reality to become a pioneer in its field and has successfully revolutionized jewelry shopping experience. 

Perplexed by the helplessness that comes with shopping alone, StyleDotMe was started off by Meghna Sarogi as a fashion and lifestyle platform where users could get instant advice from their friends on their fashion purchases.  Realising the influence of visual design on purchasing patterns, the startup pivoted to a business-to-business model by launching its flagship product ‘mirrAR’ in 2018. In 2018, AR, artificial intelligence (AI), and crypto expert Akhil Tolani joined StyleDotMe as a Co-founder and CTO. They collectively run a team of 30 employees currently. 

MirrAR  is an augmented reality platform for jewelers.  “We started with an in-store solution, but today, we have an omnichannel presence where the technology can be integrated to any website or app,” said Meghna Saraogi.

The offline in-store solution allows shoppers to virtually try-on jewelry like earrings, necklaces, jewelry sets, rings, and bracelets to make better purchase decisions while the webAR solution facilitates try-on for customers across the world. The realtime product allows clients to provide access to a large inventory to its customers. This allows shoppers to try on jewellery on a digital platform, without having to actually wear these pieces.

The product enabled Tanishq to launch its first-ever zero inventory experience zone at New Delhi and Bengaluru airports. MirrAR has been showcased at five national and international exhibitions, including JCK Las Vegas and Inhorgenta in Munich. Its first client was PC Jewellers and currently serves more than 150 clients, in more than 28 Indian cities, New York, Singapore, and Dubai.

StyleDotMe had received the first funding from IAN with prominent lead investors like Ambarish Raghuvanshi, Ex-Co-promoter & CFO Infoedge), Deval Tibrewalla, CEO- Polo Towers Group, Ajay Gupta and Hari Balasubramanian. In July 2020, Indian Angel Network backed StyleDotMe raised Rs 3.5 crore in a Pre-series A funding round led by Survam Partners, the family office of Hero MotoCorp’s Suman Kant Munjal which also witnessed Bobby Kothari, Director Jewelex India as a strategic investor among others. Other marquee investors like Rajan Anandan, Raman Roy, Saurabh Srivastava, Ritesh Malik, and Rohit Chanana are also investors in StyleDotM. 

With a client portfolio consisting of 150-plus jewellers like Tanishq, Kalyan Jewellers, Senco, HazooriLal Legacy, etc. across 28 cities, mirrAR is now ready to enter the global market, says StyleDotMe. Meghna Saraogi, co-founder & CEO, said, “Their backing and experience will allow us to expand in the global market and we are looking forward to capturing almost 50% of the market share across the biggest jewellery hubs: India, Middle-East and US by 2025.”

Indian Angel Network’s Ambarish Raghuvansh added, “IAN has supported StyleDotMe since inception and has participated in several rounds of fundraising since then. StyleDotMe is now poised to attain great heights with its emphasis on AR and VR. IAN investors will continue to provide investing, advisory and business assistance to styledotme in its growth phase.”

The startup plans to use the funds raised to also foray into new categories like eyewear and watches. Saraogi said they are now working on rolling out this technology to makeup category, at a time when brands are increasingly looking to offer contactless virtual trials to its customers amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

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