Slikk Club Raises $3.2 Mn to Transform India’s Quick-Commerce Fashion Space

• Funding round also saw participation from Multiply Ventures, existing investors, and notable angel investors including Abhishek Goyal (Tracxn), Abhinav Pathak (Perpule), Madhav Tandan, Nikhil (Panthera), and Saurabh Gupta (DST Global)
• The funding will drive Slikk Club’s operational expansion while enhancing its leadership team across various categories

Slikk Club, India’s first 60-minute fashion delivery platform, has raised $3.2 million in an all-equity seed funding round led by Lightspeed, with participation from Multiply Ventures, existing investors, and notable angel investors including Abhishek Goyal (Tracxn), Abhinav Pathak (Perpule), Madhav Tandan, Nikhil (Panthera) and Saurabh Gupta (DST Global). The fresh capital will be utilized to scale operations in Bangalore, making 80% of the city’s pincodes serviceable through multiple dark stores. The company will also strengthen its leadership team across technology, category management, operations, and supply chain.

Slikk Club plans to expand across Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities over the next five years, bringing 60-minute fashion delivery to a wider audience. It also aims to diversify into seven-plus lifestyle categories while leveraging advanced technology for seamless shopping, fulfillment, and returns. With its Try & Buy model, instant refunds, and rapid delivery, Slikk Club is reshaping fashion e-commerce. This funding round marks a key milestone in solidifying its leadership in India’s fast-fashion market.

“At Slikk Club, we set out to change the way people experience fashion—making style as instant and effortless as their impulse to shop,” said Akshay Gulati, CEO & Co-Founder, Slikk Club. “This funding is a major step forward in our mission to bring 60-minute fashion delivery to more shoppers, scale our presence in Bangalore, and expand into new lifestyle categories. We’re excited to partner with Lightspeed and our investors, who believe in our vision of making last-minute fashion a seamless, delightful experience.”

Beyond just speed, the company offers a seamless, full-stack shopping experience with curated selections, instant deliveries, and hassle-free returns. In an industry-first move, Slikk Club is introducing instant returns and refunds, making fashion shopping more convenient than ever. With a robust portfolio of 80+ brands, including Snitch, The Souled Store, Freakins , Uptownie , Off Duty, Bonkers, and Bewakoof, Slikk Club is establishing itself as the ultimate destination for last-minute fashion needs.

Commenting on the investment, Rahul Taneja, Partner, Lightspeed said, "How we shop is changing everyday and so are our expectations from shopping destinations. The team at Slikk has thoughtfully created a platform that delivers delight to customers, from sharply curated styles to better merchandising to deliveries and returns in a short time. It is beyond delivering at speed - it is about delivering that enjoyable shopping experience that customers have come to expect. We're excited to partner with them on their journey ahead."

Since its inception, Slikk Club has experienced exponential growth, doubling its scale month on month. It caters to a dynamic audience of young, impulse-driven shoppers, including college students, young professionals, and urban trendsetters heavily influenced by social media trends. Designed specifically for this demographic, the platform fulfills the growing demand for quick and trendy fashion choices. With India’s fashion market valued at $11 billion and the beauty and personal care market exceeding $34 billion, Slikk Club is strategically positioned to capitalize on the rising need for hyperlocal, fast-fashion solutions.

About Slikk Club:

Slikk Club was founded by Akshay Gulati (CEO), Om Prakash Swami (CTO), and Bipin Singh (CPO), who bring extensive experience in building and scaling commerce platforms. Their expertise is now fueling innovation in fashion e-commerce. As India’s first quick-commerce fashion platform, Slikk Club delivers clothing and accessories within 60 minutes across Bangalore, eliminating long wait times and making shopping seamless. With its unique Try & Buy model, Slikk offers customers a hassle-free experience, redefining convenience in Indian e-commerce.

www.slikk.club

About Lightspeed:

Lightspeed is a global multi-stage venture capital firm focused on accelerating disruptive innovations and trends in the Enterprise, Consumer, Health, and Fintech sectors. Over the past two decades, the Lightspeed team has backed hundreds of entrepreneurs and helped build more than 500 companies globally including Affirm, Acceldata, Carta, Cato Networks, Darwinbox, Epic Games, Faire, Innovaccer, Guardant Health, Mulesoft, Navan, Netskope, Nutanix, Physics Wallah, Razorpay, Rubrik, Sharechat, Snap, OYO Rooms, Ultima Genomics, Zepto and more. Lightspeed and its global team currently manage $25B in AUM across the Lightspeed platform, with investment professionals and advisors in the U.S., Europe, India, Israel, and Southeast Asia.

www.lsip.com

Social Experience Startup MyScoot Raises $1.7 Mn from Lightspeed India, Venture Highway, Mayfield

MyScoot, the community platform for home-hosted experiences, has raised $1.7 million (approx. INR 11.7 crores) in a round of seed funding featuring Lightspeed India Partners, Venture Highway, and Mayfield India.

MyScoot, which is a platform to meet verified new people at home-hosted social events, plans to use the funds to hire its core team, recruit top tech talent and more deeply penetrate their current market.

The funding is received from marquee institutional investors, who have a diverse portfolio across e-commerce, consumer tech, and digital communities.

Millennials in India are constantly looking for new social experiences and meaningful interactions, which has given rise to a $35B+ experiences market. What makes MyScoot different is it its 5-step profile verification process and the host’s ability to earn money from their home, according to their interests.

The funding will help MyScoot build AI-based social experience recommendations, develop their safe-guards, and establish a stronghold in their already active Delhi and Bangalore market. In addition to some of the strongest firms in Indian investment, MyScoot closed their funding round with angel investors, such as Kunal Shah, CEO of CRED, and Maninder Gulati, Chief Strategy Officer at OYO Rooms.

The product is reminiscent of the Airbnb model, where users, post-completing MyScoot’s 5 step verification process, are able to ‘host’ or ‘book’. The host sets the price point for their offering and earns money as they select guests to attend. Built to establish real connections, MyScoot offers bold, fresh, experiences and parties of all kinds from dinner parties, board game brunches, Salsa dance socials, to backyard bonfires.

All 30 and under, co-founders Suyash Sinha, Sidharth Rawat, Akhil Tripathi, and Somvir Yadav have built a solution for India’s largest asset - its youth. 2020 will mark India’s rise as the youngest country in the world with an average age of 29. MyScoot is a uniquely Indian solution to a uniquely Indian problem - highly digital youth, disconnected in a digital world.

Loneliness is on the rise with millenials on the move, following work opportunities across cities and countries. It can be hard to make meaningful connections in a city where one has no previous network. Realising first hand how difficult it was to meet and connect with people in bars and pubs, MyScoot’s founders, Suyash Sinha and Sidharth Rawat felt the need to for a better way to meet people.

Regarding the round of funding, Suyash Sinha, CEO & Co-Founder, MyScoot said, “We’re excited to have such seasoned investors and experts support the MyScoot mission - to make real connections in today’s digital, online world. Their belief in our vision will allow us to scale and create a stronger, more robust platform to better serve users. Our goal is to reach more of the world’s largest youth cohort, Indian millennials, enabling them to create bonds and build friendships in a new and meaningful way."

Nikhil Khattau, Managing Director, Mayfield India, highlighting the reason behind choosing to invest in MyScoot, said, “We’re passionate about MyScoot because it’s an idea larger than home-hosted parties. It’s a safe place for micro-communities, a non-digital space to forge connections.

The experience market is on the rise and MyScoot has tapped into something larger - one’s need to belong. There is no other solution in the market, building digital to non-digital relationships in such a manner. We’re proud to support a solution especially built to the largest young cohort in the world - Indian millennials.”

The Problem MyScoot is Solving:
Supporting micro-communities and local events, MyScoot caters to modern Indian consumers’ needs and desires - convenience, personalisation, and sense of belonging. (Deloitte)

The World Economic Forum identified ‘loneliness’ as an epidemic in 2019: “Chronic loneliness is a health concern across generations, with 40% of under-25-year old people reporting that they feel lonely."

23% of Indian students log into social media platforms for more than 8 hours daily due to low-battery anxiety, nomophobia, and FOMO, says research from Omidyar.

The Journey of MyScoot

• August 2017 - MyScoot beta launched via a Google Form amongst friends of friends, gaining more than 500 registrations within days


• September 2018 - MyScoot formally launched


• March 2019 - MyScoot raised 150,000 USD as part of Y-Combinator Winter 2019 batch


• July 2019 - MyScoot closed Seed round of USD 1.7M and has 2000+ bookings and 200+ hosts

Lightspeed India Partners Launching Their Second India Office, in Bangalore

Lightspeed India Partners, a leading early-stage venture capital firm, today announced the launch of a second India office in Koramangala, Bangalore. The new office reflects the firm’s commitment to deepening its engagement with entrepreneurs in the Bangalore area and to better serving its existing portfolio companies headquartered in the city. With this expansion, Lightspeed now has ground presence in both of India’s key startup hubs - Bangalore and the National Capital Region.

Lightspeed has been investing in Bangalore-based companies since 2007 and has invested in more than eight companies in the city, including BYJU’S, Udaan, Sharechat and FreshMenu.

Bejul Somaia, Partner at Lightspeed India said, “With this new office we’re excited to align ourselves more closely with the Bangalore start-up ecosystem. A dedicated office will enable us to seamlessly deliver the benefits of the Lightspeed global network to entrepreneurs in Bangalore.”

Dev Khare, Partner at Lightspeed India said, “We have seen significant momentum in innovative models and companies coming out of Bangalore and emerging hubs in the region like Chennai, Hyderabad and Kochi. Our new office will help us to be closer to these entrepreneurs on the ground.”

“We’ve had the privilege of partnering with Lightspeed since the early days at Freshmenu and we’re excited to have them as our neighbours in Koramangala at the heart of the startup ecosystem in Bangalore” says Rashmi Daga, founder of Freshmenu.

Farid Ahsan, co-founder of Sharechat, says “Lightspeed has helped us tremendously by connecting our team here in Bangalore to experts in Silicon Valley and China. We are looking forward to having them close to our headquarters.”

Image: Dev Khare, Partner at Lightspeed India

Hyperlocal Discovery Startup MagicPin Raises $7 Mn In Series B Funding

Hyperlocal discovery startup MagicPin has secured $7 million in Series B round from existing investor Lightspeed India Partners and Waterbridge Ventures.

Current round also saw the participation of $15 million venture fund floated by private equity veteran Manish Kheterpal and two global family offices, Srivatsan Rajan, Chairman of Bain and Co India, and Sahil Barua, CEO of logistics company Delhivery. Earlier, Startup had raised $3 million in Series A from Lightspeed India Partners.

Commenting on the development, Bejul Somaia, MD, Lightspeed India Partners, said, "The vast majority of commerce is, and will continue to be, transacted offline. MagicPin’s metrics reflect early but exceptional success in capturing smartphone-wielding users and directing their offline spend to participating merchants.”

Currently present in Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Mumbai, MagicPin uses location intelligence to deliver discover, recommendations and rewards for local experiences. It is the social network for local experiences.

Within three months of its launch in Delhi/NCR, Gurgaon-based startup MagicPin claimed to have signed up 150K active users and have covered 30K merchants across Delhi NCR region, Bengaluru, and Jaipur.

According to MagicPin CEO, Anshoo Sharma, the key differentiator for them is that it allows people to share their experience about a place they went to with a post and a picture.

Indian Language Social Platform ShareChat Raises $4M in Series A Round

ShareChat, the Indian language social platform, has closed a $4 million Series A round of funding, led by Lightspeed India Partners, and from existing investors, SAIF Partners and India Quotient. The funding round also saw participation from Venture Highway (through VH Capital). Sharechat is building the largest social content network in India with a focus on small town users and vernacular content.ShareChat is the only platform available to a large audience coming to the internet for the first time, in India.

“Our core focus is to become the most essential non-chat social app for a first-time internet user, whether it is through local language content or through infotainment services which are relevant to them.They are hunting for things to do that are utilitarian (payments, commerce, etc.) – there’s plenty of choice here from Flipkart to Ola to Justdial to PayTM. They are also hunting for ways to kill time (TV, games, books, magazines, news, music, social media, ...) Most of what is in this "kill time" category is the traditional entertainment & media industry rejigging their content for mobile consumption and distributing this one-way through aggregators or directly. Examples would be Saavn or Hotstar or InShorts or Youtube. Almost no one has created or exposed new content for the average Indian common man or woman. This is what Sharechat is doing” says Farid Ahsan, Co-founder & CEO, ShareChat.

As the name suggests, ShareChat allows users to create, discover and share content with each other much like people do on Tumblr and Instagram. Users can follow other users who are either a content creator or a friend on the platform for regular updates, much-like most other social networks. The key differentiator for ShareChat, however,is the primary action of sharing.

“Our audience is ever hungry for both consuming localised content and expressing their creativity and opinions to the right audience, something that was not very easy for them until now, even with existing social networks. We believe that the Indian user is very typical in his/her needs and this gives a local player a closeness to user problems when compared with global social networking giants like Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp and Snapchat. A lot of our effort goes into understanding the audience and their needs through experiments. It is a lot like returning to an earlier time of internet usage, pretty close to how we were when we came to the internet for the first time in the early 2000s.” says Ankush Sachdeva, Co-founder and CPO, who has just returned from a survey trip to Alwar villages in Rajasthan.

Dev Khare, from Lightspeed India Partners, says, “ShareChat is poised to be a big problem solver for the largely-ignored mass market of India. The audience definitely needs a product which is relevant to their mindspace and we believe ShareChat balances this need of a content+social discovery platform in the best fashion.”

ShareChat is available in 6 languages, namely, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi, Gujarati and Punjabi. Tamil and Bengali are currently in private beta and will be shortly made available for all users. The app has been downloaded 3.5 million times, with roughly 2 million active users on the platform. At a daily level, 1 million content pieces get shared per day from ShareChat.

Mayank Khanduja, from SAIF Partners, says “ShareChat is in a very unique position in the Indian market today. We’ve worked closely with this team for the last one year and the way they have leveraged technology is outstanding.”

ShareChat was started by Farid Ahsan, Bhanu Singh and Ankush Sachdeva, right after graduating from IIT-K. The fact that the founders hail from small towns has helped their cause in making their first gut impressions right. ShareChat started as a content repository app for sharing on Whatsapp, and has now evolved into a full-fledged social network.

“When we invested 2 years ago, we just had a team and an idea to build a social network for the masses. From the days of ideating in our office, the team has come a long way and has grown along with the business. We rate them as the best product team we have worked with, especially their approach of blending data with experiments." says Anand Lunia, from India Quotient, the first investor in ShareChat.

“We are excited about the product that ShareChat is building. We have always believed that a homegrown social product, built for the aam aadmi in vernacular, addresses a big opportunity in India. ” says Samir Sood, founder, Venture Highway, which is advised by Neeraj Arora, the Global Business Head of Whatsapp.

“It is always a great feeling to be backed by good investors who understand the space. But procurement of capital does not ensure success of a business, though being the lifeline considering we have a limited focus on revenue. The battle only goes uphill from here,” says Bhanu Singh, Co-founder and CTO, ShareChat.

“The fresh round of funds will be employed majorly for going deep into the vernacular ecosystem. Having multi-lingual interfaces is just not enough. We have literally just touched the surface of our target audience. These are early adopters. A lot of work is required on our part to make ShareChat a household brand, digging deep into the user base, and to bring even more interesting infotainment and utilities for our ever-expanding Indian market,” concludes Farid.