Bagallery, a Pakistan-based digital-first beauty and fashion startup, has raised $4.5 million in Series A funding.
The round was co-lead by Zayn Capital, existing investor Lakson VC, and UAE-based Hayaat Global.
Bagallery is on a mission to reinvent how people shop for beauty and fashion products online. With its wide range of products spanning across the categories of skincare, makeup, fragrance, handbags, watches, and clothing, Bagallery serves more than 2,700,000 visitors per month and has more than 500,000 satisfied customers across the country.
Co-founded by Mina Salman back in 2017, Bagallery is Pakistan’s biggest female co-founded startup. The startup is now being valued four times compared to its Seed Round funding. With a 40 percent female workforce, the startup firmly believes in empowering women and giving them the charge, particularly in an industry where approximately 80 percent of customers are female.
Commenting on this, the founders said,
Pakistan is a country of 220 million people, and everyone wants to look beautiful. Our purpose is to offer affordable fashion and beauty products to each and every segment of our population. Globally, fashion and beauty are the biggest categories for e-commerce, so we are playing in the right segment, which has already seen many unicorns globally, especially in the last three years. We are planning for a mega expansion after this funding, both through acquiring some fashion brands and expanding to other locations.
Since raising its seed round in 2020, Bagallery has shown tremendous growth over the last year, with a threefold increase in revenue and more than 20,000 products and 2000 brands added to their online store.
The startup also launched exciting innovations in the last year, including virtual try-on with L’Oreal ModiFace, live streaming, and social commerce. With the startup now fulfilling the beauty and fashion needs of customers across Pakistan, Bagallery is well-poised to establish itself as a market leader in the beauty and fashion industry in Pakistan.
‘’It’s been amazing to see the growth of this company over the last few years, and I am really excited to be a continued of Mina and Salman’s vision to build the best beauty and fashion platform in Pakistan,’’ said the Co-founder and Managing Partner of Zayn Capital Frontier Fund.
‘’We are thrilled to continue supporting Bagallery in its aim to reinvent the online beauty and fashion industry in Pakistan. Since its launch, Bagallery has captured the market with its innovative go-to-market strategy and partnerships with leading brands. With its Series A funding, Bagallery can scale faster by acquiring online fashion brands to grow its portfolio and maintain its market leader position. We stand committed to Mina and Salman and the Bagallery team in making the company the first domestic beauty and fashion unicorn,” said Babar Lakhani, Managing Partner of Lakson Venture Capital.
‘’We have been drawn to Bagallery because of its unwavering attention to strong fundamentals: passionate promoters, in-demand brand portfolio, great customer outreach, and growth focus. Salman, Mina, and the team are leveraging these strengths to continuously bring fresh, innovative concepts to the consumers, and are becoming a top market player in this process. Hayaat is excited to support this team as they look to embark on the next phase of this exciting journey,” said Mohammed Ikhlaq, Director Hayaat Global SFO DMCC.
With the Series A funding, Bagallery aims to launch exciting new projects in 2022, including a first-of-its-kind influencer platform that will allow customers and influencers in the beauty and fashion industry to connect through their website. Its vision is to democratize online beauty and fashion with best-in-class customer service and an unmatched variety. Bagallery also shared their intent to buy a few online brands in their operating categories to uplift their growth and portfolio further.
Regionally, the beauty and fashion e-commerce industry has been booming with a lot of ventures raising tens of millions of dollars in capital or having big exits.
Nykaa, Indian beauty and fashion e-commerce company, is valued at over $10 billion, having gone public last month in late October. Myntra, another Indian fashion e-commerce startup that competes with Nykaa today, was an early player in this space and was acquired by Flipkart for $300 million in 2014. Purple raised $140 million, making it to the list of unicorns. Three platforms in Indonesia have already become unicorns within the last few years.
Founders of Bagallery believe Beauty and Fashion will have at least 3 to 4 unicorns in Pakistan in the next 5 to 7 years.
