Bespoke etailer InStitchu is on a mission to snap up more market share and has completed a business acquisition, just weeks after receiving a six-figure investment to drive growth.
The online suit tailor, established in 2012, has acquired men’s custom dress shoes business Mantorii.
The coup marks another milestone in what has been a year of growth for the Australian startup, founded by entrepreneurs Robin McGowan and James Wakefield.
Last month, InStitchu secured $2.5 million in venture capital funding from Disruptive Capital, the technology focussed arm of Aura Capital Group.
Commenting on the investment, co-founder McGowan said the funding would help them scale the company across verticals and also internationally.
“We have experienced strong organic growth, with word of mouth buzz making 2013 a breakout year for InStitchu.
“While the bootstrapped phase of the business has been exciting, we’re now looking forward to having the capital and expertise to grow our local team, continue to innovate, make strategic acquisitions, and expand internationally.
“We have a number of exciting announcements to make in the coming months, so watch this space!”
Disruptive Capital director Calvin Ng added that the company has backed Institchu due to its significant market potential.
“Domestically InStitchu is the clear market leader with unique intellectual property powering its products, customer satisfaction and engagement. We see a huge market opportunity and look forward to working with the founders to take InStitchu to the next level.”
Institchu, which enables customers to design made-to-measure suits, shirts, and accessories, has already designed more than 50,000 suits for Australian customers.
McGowan said the acquisition of Mantorii, which is also built around a customisation model, was a perfect fit to expand the company's potential.
While the acquisition will bring the two businesses under the same roof, they will remain separate brands, operating as virtual “brother stores” with their own dedicated teams.
“Our success selling custom-made suits and shirts online proved that there was plenty of opportunity to expand our offering,” McGowan said.
“We’d been looking at ways to do this when we came across Mantorii. We saw that it shared many similarities with our current business, and it had so much going for it. We begun talks with its founders and everything just fell into place.
“The shoes are amazing quality and very well regarded by those in the know, but the business has not been around for long, so it doesn’t really have the market penetration that it deserves. That’s something we reckon will change rapidly.”
McGowan added that Australian women had already seen the advantage of shopping online and being able to design their own shoes, and is confident that with the right product and service mix, men too will embrace the online shoe shopping experience.
“The made-to-order model enables us to add another dimension to the shopping. It means we can incorporate sophisticated design tools, so customers can create truly personalised products, made specifically to their own design preferences. This improves the overall shopping experience and gives us a tremendous advantage over traditional retailers.
“Mantorii has a loyal following of customers, but we’ve shown with InStitchu, that we can quickly grow the customer-base, streamline the operations, and expand globally.”