An investment firm set up by three entrepreneurs has closed its first three investments, including London start-up Girl Meets Dress.
Founded by Xavier de Lecaros-Aquise and Anna Bance, Girl Meets Dress opens up the luxury clothing market to a wider range of customers by allowing them to rent.
Bance previously spent three years as a PR manager at French brand Hermes and has set up a business which now rents 4,000 dresses from 150 designers to 30 countries.
The backing from Global Founders Capital represents the first round of funding for Girl Meets Dress, having been bootstrapped since its two founders.
Bance believes that the new partnership with Global Founders Capital is one with ‘limitless opportunity’.
‘Girl Meets Dress has pioneered a new and now growing exciting category in e-commerce and this partnership will help us to achieve our vision for the business,’ she adds.
‘We are very excited to be working with Global Founders Capital, and the three founders are global leaders in e-commerce so we couldn’t ask for a better partner to support the growth and development of our business.’
Girl Meets Dress will be putting the undisclosed capital amount to use by investing in marketing efforts, editorial elements, and bringing new talent on board.
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Munich-based Global Founders Capital was set up in March 2013 by Fabian Siegel, Oliver Samwer and Marc Samwer.
Oliver Samwer has built and exited businesses including Alando, Jamster and Citydeal while Fabian Siegel co-founded European payment service ClickandBuy before selling it to Deutsche Telekom.
The trio have raised $200 million for investment in European businesses and have now made two other investments to go with the injection into Girl Meets Dress. Sitting alongside the London fashion e-commerce business in the firm’s portfolio are French social fashion marketplace Videdressing.com and live language learning start-up Lingoda.com.
Siegel comments, ‘We are impressed by the performance of Girl Meets Dress. Going forward, we are excited to help the team to build a leading company in this industry by providing access to our global network.’
