Russia’s Sistema Asia Fund has just led a $6 million round of financing for Wooplr Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which runs an eponymous fashion discovery app for women. The news was reported on Monday by Vedomosti, a leading Russian business daily, based on exchanges with a fund representative.
An unnamed source close to the fund added that Sistema Asia Fund contributed around $3 million in the deal.
As reported recently by Indian industry publication TechCircle, Woolpr was founded in 2013 by Arjun Zacharia, Praveen Rajaretnam, Soumen Sarkar and Ankit Sabharwal, four former McAfee employees.
The company’s app has been designed to to help people shop better based on location, occasion, interests and friends. Users can upload details about their purchases, and helps their friends discover places and shop from there. Woolpr also provides businesses with a single-point mobile application to manage their marketing, community building and sales.
Woolpr, which had already raised several millions of US dollars before the latest round, hopes to reach 100 million women users in India by 2020, according to TechCircle — up from 3 million in 2016.
From Russia with venture money
Launched in early 2016, Sistema Asia Fund is one of the corporate funds of Sistema, an LSE-listed Russian conglomerate. With $50 million in capital under management, Sistema Asia targets essentially Indian startups operating in the technology and niche consumer retail segments.
In April 2016, Sistema Asia Fund participated in a $12 million funding round for Seclore, a major enterprise digital rights management (EDRM).
A few months later, the Russian fund led a $10 million round for QwikCilver, a Bangalore-based provider of gifting card solutions.
Among other Russian venture investors operating in India is Leonid Boguslavsky. Recently his fund Ru-Net took part in a $55 million Series D funding round for Practo, a startup that helps people locate doctors.
Photo credit: Woolpr on Instagram
