Online lifestyle retailer SquareKey has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from 500Startups, Devaraj Southworth (Executive Vice President at Zipmark) and a group of angel investors, reports iamwire, confirming the funding from 500Startups partner Pankaj Jain.
Based in New York and Mumbai, SquareKey is an editorially driven e-commerce lifestyle retailer providing access to international brands and curated services. It caters to women, men and kids on its platform. According to the publication, SquareKey provides international brand apparels in India for the similar price that it’s available in the west. Typically, international brands are available in the country at a much premium price tag as compared to the price at which it is available in the west.
Besides that, SquareKey also provides three kinds of personal shopper service where the user in India can shop in New York based on their personal preferences. Once a user contacts the company, SquareKey interviews the shopper to understand the needs of the shopper and then it personally takes them for shopping, or shops it for them depending on the kind of service they need. It charges $100 for two hours plus transportation or $500 all day inclusive of transportation in case the user wants to personally shop with the personal shopper.
According to an article from Techcrunch, SquareKey seems to have been backed by GSF India, however, the startup no longer features on its website.
Fashion and lifestyle portals
While we aren’t sure there are lifestyle portals like SquareKey in India giving access to International brands without charging a premium, Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd run Madura Fashion & lifestyle had launched its E-commerce store at TrendIn.com in March 2013. Other Lifestyle E-Commerce portals include Myntra.com, Flipkart.com which recently started with apparel category, Jabong India, Yebhi.com, Snapdeal.com, among others.
