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Industry

Technology

Company Type

Digital Luxury Fashion Marketplace

Size

$15 Million

Investment Type

Equity

Overview

La Bella Stella, a tech company in the online retail luxury apparel space, is seeking $10-$25 million to rapidly scale its digital luxury fashion marketplace in the US, Gulf region, and East Asian markets

Built and operating a proprietary A.I. driven API to connect directly with boutiques in Europe – Currently at 50 boutiques and growing fast​


Operating and continuing to expand the largest US-based A.I. driven global digital luxury fashion marketplace – which allows for a better customer experience without the need for a large human driven team​


Aggregator of authorized luxury retail sellers and intermediary to facilitate sales of luxury apparel and goods sourced from various boutiques and vendors​


Will not own or hold any inventory, and will instead facilitate luxury retail sales transacted by the customer directly on its website​


The La Bella Stella brand and digital luxury fashion marketplace was built using years of domain expertise in merchandising, technology, and global supply chain management

Key Investment Highlights

Proven model: Proprietary A.I. and sales technology was in beta and tested throughout 2022, launched into operation in 2023, and is currently generating revenue​


Excellent long-standing vendor and merchant relationships, which have been transferred under licensing agreements.  More than 50 boutiques have been onboarded​


Vendor relationships can be turbo-charged with dedicated proven proprietary technology that has the potential to become the largest US-based global digital luxury fashion marketplace

Opportunity

The US fashion market alone is estimated to be $364 billion by 2024.  Annual fashion sales in the Middle East’s Gulf region markets amount to $50 billion, and Japan has market share of $65 billion​

Global fashion continues to move east, and market size tilts heavily toward China, with the largest market share of all, at $427 billion​


Luxury fashion segment is posed to grow globally to over $1 trillion​


Online digital “marketplace” ecommerce models where buyers enter into transactions directly with dropshippers minimize the need for extensive inventory buys and thus avoid incurring the large-scale costs associated with holding and storing stock​

Global Expansion

SE Asian (Vietnam & Thailand)  regions provide relatively untapped markets for the marketplace model business in the luxury fashion segment​


East Asia (China, Japan & S. Korea) are core markets which the team has vast experience in expanding to​


Gulf Region (Middle East) are ripe to expand, as there is no company at scale there having great success​


Previous companies that offered an ecommerce option for Western luxury fashion brands in these regions were typically locally established subsidiaries of US-based companies, such as Gilt​

Strategy

Continue to aggressively onboard luxury boutiques and vendors as partners​


Goods are shipped directly from La Bella Stella’s contracted boutiques and partners to customers​


State of the art Supply Chain investment to ensure best in class service is achieved for all customers.​


Proprietary technology enables the marketplace to scale to hundreds of brands with low staffing overhead compared to traditional ecommerce​


Planned major expansion into East Asia and the Gulf Region (Middle east)​

Key Differentiators

Vendor relationships reflect a “cost plus” model as opposed to competitors like Cettire, SSense, MyTheresa and Italist, which take a percentage of sales.  This allows La Bella Stella to be much more competitive with pricing, while retaining margin, and maintaining full control over the marketing strategy​


Proprietary technology selects the best margins combined with fastest speed-to-consumer​


Vendor Portal allows vendors real time access to their sales, as well as competitive analysis as to how they are performing vs other vendors carrying the same products​


Technology underlying the process always prioritizes margins for La Bella Stella and equally prioritizing the customer experience​

Management

2020-11-21-1

Kent Helbig – CEO/CTO

25+ year career in technology and operations, with the last 15 years focused on building, scaling, and running high value eCommerce stores and marketplaces in the USA and APAC markets. Some of the companies joined at an early stage or built and scaled internationally include Gilt.com/Gilt Japan, Ashford.com, CoEdition (which became Cortina). 100% focused on La Bella Stella

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Sam Darwish – CMO/CVO

In 2011 launched La Dolce Vitae, bringing together interests in fashion and technology, as well as experience in wholesale and retail. Vision was to create a single portal, offering the leading luxury brands at a discount. Involved in fashion since 2001 launching an online fashion business intrends.com and in 2003 opened three multi-brand luxury stores – Boutique Royale. Opened the Salvatore Ferragamo Boutique in Jordan. In 2014 became the VP of buying at MarkaVIP.com in Dubai – UAE until the company was acquired in 2018

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Phong Nguyen – Chief Architect

With a career in technology spanning over two decades, Phong Nguyen is distinguished by his role as a co-founder of Gilt Groupe, where his expertise in software architecture and scalability was crucial in transforming Gilt into a billion-dollar flash sales company. Following his tenure at Gilt, he founded Hydrasoft.io, applying his profound knowledge in technology strategy and product development. Additionally, Phong co-founded Luminary Media and holds leadership positions at SuperCircle and Applico. A graduate of UC Berkeley, his contributions have been pivotal in shaping technology systems in e-commerce and startups.

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Chris Halkyard – COO

Over 30 years of experience in the supply chain/logistics industry (designing direct to consumer solutions since 1999).  Builds supply chain models that allows for accelerated growth while still maintaining an excellent customer experience. Chief Supply Chain Officer for Gilt Groupe – built a unique logistics strategy that supported massive expansion in a cost-effective way. Senior management positions for Blue Apron, Barkbox, Rent the Runway, ToysRus and more

Learn More About La Bella Stella
Thank you for your interest in La Bella Stella.Please fill out your information and we will contact you shortly with more information on this opportunity.

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CONTACT US

Hi. We're not around right now. But you can send us an email and we'll get back to you, asap.

Thanks, Ken

Ken Margolis | Managing Partner Castle Placement, LLC
1460 Broadway Street, Rte 400
New York, New York 10036
(212) 418-1188 | C: (516) 712-7784
kmargolis@castleplacement.com

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