Fashion & You

The company's founding team brought a blend of entrepreneurial and corporate experience. Harish Bahl, a serial entrepreneur, founded the Smile Group in 1999, an investor and builder of consumer internet platforms in Asia. His portfolio included ventures like Quasar and SVG Media. Pearl Uppal had over a decade of experience in the internet industry, including a role as Director of Sales at Yahoo India, and held degrees from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and the Delhi College of Engineering. This background in technology, sales, and entrepreneurship was foundational to Fashion & You's initial strategy. Uppal and her husband, Gaurav Kachru, later co-founded other ventures in the fashion space.

Fashion & You secured significant financial backing, raising a total of $75.3 million over five funding rounds. Its first round was in April 2010, and it attracted notable investors such as Sequoia Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, Intel Capital, and the Smile Group. The capital was intended to strengthen its inventory-light business model, enhance technology, and expand its customer base. A key milestone was the acquisition of online fashion and beauty retailer UrbanTouch in 2012 for a reported $30 million in cash and stock, a move intended to solidify its market leadership. However, the integration proved challenging, and the UrbanTouch brand was eventually shut down.

The company's business model centered on flash sales, offering new deals on branded items for a limited period of 3-4 days to create a sense of urgency. It worked with numerous entrepreneurs and designers to bring a curated selection of products to its growing member base, which at one point surpassed 5.5 million members across 1200 locations in India. Despite its early success and significant funding, Fashion & You faced intense competition from other e-commerce platforms like Myntra and Jabong, and experienced internal challenges, including the departure of co-founder Pearl Uppal. The company underwent restructuring, reducing its workforce and shifting from a closed-club to an open website model to adapt to the evolving market. Ultimately, Fashion & You is now considered a deadpooled company.