Flyrobe: Rent It Bae

In India, you can see the obsession of peoples with clothes. Let me correct myself. It is not only in India but throughout the world. People are just so fond of buying new clothes and spend a considerable amount of their money on them.

They wear clothes just 1 to 3 times. Then the peoples start getting fed up with it. Even in my case, I have many clothes. But when it comes to getting ready for some plan, I get confused about what to wear. It feels like my wardrobe is empty or just filled with old and outdated clothes.

With the same thought, we all go shopping. Getting discounts is a vital part of our attraction. It also leads us to buy new clothes each time. All these clothes gather and remain new or less used.

Flyrobe is working to align these things easily in our day-to-day life, not by stopping us from buying new clothes, but by renting the costumes.

It has given us a new dimension on getting clothes for parties, functions, date nights of big brands like Ritu Kumar, Armani, FCUK, and many more. Flyrobe offers an all-new collection of attires for men and women on rent.

Yes, you heard it right!

Now, the clothes from big brands are also available for rent. Here is the story of how garments on rent bring out as a mega startup

Emerging the idea

It was all started by the three friends (Shreya Mishra, Pranay Suran, and Tushar Saxena) from IIT Bombay in 2015. Once in a conference on entrepreneurship, Shreya got attracted by the idea of rental shops. She started thinking of an out-of-the-box idea. Finally, she and Pranay came with the idea of opening a rental shop for clothes.

They figured out that in India, people spend a significant amount of money on clothes. Therefore, this idea will work for them and brings out a profitable business.

The idea grew fast

After deciding on the idea, it was only necessary to implement it the right way. Both of them took Tushar Saxena on their team. He was a geek in college. He was so good at coding that he made an application for Flyrobe during his final year.

They opened their online store through a mobile application. After some time, they were successful in launching a website for this startup. The startup also opened its offline stores in megacities like Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, etc.

They tied up with several brands like Mango, Sabyasachi, Ritu Kumar, and many more. Many celebrities like Sunny Leone, Huma Qureshi, and others endorsed it after using its services.

In Flyrobe, the rent is only 10% -15% of the price. For security deposits, they charge 20% of the actual price. This money gets returned after the successful pick up of the dress. There is a tender of 4 days to keep the dress material.

Flyrobe not only offers its services to women, but it also provides different varieties of Western wear, Ethnic wear to men. Now, they are leading in providing jewelry, watches, bags, and other accessories on rent.

Investments throughout

There were five funding rounds of Flyrobe, following in a total amount sum of $10.7 million.

Seed funding:- There were six investors in the seed funding round. The lead investor was Sequoia Capital India which leads to a total funding amount of $1.7 million. It took place on 5th July 2016.
Series A:- On 31st July 2016, Flyrobe received its next funding of $5.3 million. The prime investor was Chiratae Ventures. There were five investors in total.
Non-Equity Assistance:- On 22nd November 2016, Google Launchpad Accelerator invested a sum of $50K.
Series B:- In 2018, Flyrobe was successful in its 4th funding round and generated $2.64 million. There were four investors. The lead amongst them was Sequoia Capital India.
Venture round:- The final funding round was held on 1st January 2019 by Innoven Capital. The sum was $60K.

After the leading investors pushed Flyrobe more in the field, they got an opportunity for acquisition by Rent It Bae. In November 2019, it was a remarkable success for Flyrobe and Rent It Bae when the two of them merged and started functioning with the name of Flyrobe.

The future through their eyes

They don’t stop here. All these again motivated the team to achieve even higher in this field. They are planning to open offline stores in 20 cities. Besides, they are planning to bring a new concept of Tryrobe. It will be a virtual trial room in all the offline stores. Through this, the customers can take a trial experience like they do in other shops.

The CEO of Flyrobe, Aanchal Saini, who was also the CEO of Rent It Bae, is making the company grow. They are planning to collaborate with more brands. Also, they are planning to expand their business abroad in regions like Dubai, the USA, and London.