Boohoo sets trend with £1m tech boost
FASHION FIRM BACKS WEB PLATFORM WHICH HELPS DESIGNERS COLLABORATE
THE family behind Manchester’s leading fashion firm Boohoo have invested almost £1m in a new tech start-up.
RangeRoom encourages collaboration between designers and brands, allowing new products to be created quickly and cheaply on a shared platform.
This means that all involved in creating the hottest new looks can communicate easily and it also allows retailers to monitor stock levels and feed back to the designers which lines are selling well.
The investment has come from the Kamani Capital Fund which was set up by the co-founder of Pretty Little Thing Adam Kamani.
It is the latest cash boost for the London-based start-up which has already attracted a string of industry backers including New Look’s Tom Singh.
RangeRoom was launched in 2017 by Brendan Baldrey who decided to branch out after spending 15 years as a designer in the industry.
He spotted a need for all stakeholders including designers, buyers, suppliers, manufacturers, brands and retailers to work closer together to drive changing trends.
Brendan said: “It’s fantastic that we have already secured the backing of a number of high calibre influencers within the industry who have put their faith in RangeRoom.
“The lack of options available across the industry to innovate, create efficiency and drive cost savings were the key challenges that we set out to address. Forget fast fashion – the future has to be about smart fashion.”
Addressing the investment he added: “We have now started talking to venture capitalists about growth capital to accelerate product development and build our sales team.”
He explains that the fashion and retail industry is struggling to keep up with the pace of change that results from the ‘see now buy now’ culture enabled by technology. For every retailer dealing with one or more of these challenges, there is a supplier who saw the trend coming and was agile enough to produce their own collection to capitalise on it – such as Love Island merchandise.
Adam said: “RangeRoom provides a solution to the digital disconnect between customer, retailer, and manufacturer, but also a visual collaboration platform for internal and satellite teams, a showroom for suppliers with direct-to consumer ambitions, a tool for transparency that caters to socially conscious consumers, and more.
“RangeRoom is already doing amazing work and I’m confident in the vision of Brendan and the team and the future plans that I have seen that not only will I get a solid return on my investment in the coming years.”