Putting a Sabyasachi within reach

Anyone should be able to wear intricate raiments. That’s the motto of Sabena Puri and Sanchit Baweja, co-founders of Stage3, which has partnered with designers to make their creations available on rent.

Sabena studied in Harvard Business School and University of Columbia. When she returned to India, she found that the prices of designer clothes had increased significantly, and the outfits were out of reach for many.

She teamed up with Sanchit, a former CEO of Buttons n Threads, and designer Rina Dhaka, setting up the portal of Stage3 in 2017. Works of well-known designers such as Anju Modi, Sabyasachi Mukherjee and Manish Malhotra are available on rent at 10% of the original cost for a three-day period.

“One can have it for six days by paying 40% additional rent cost. Once a garment is returned, it is refurbished and is good to go into another pair of hands,” Sabena, the firm’s CEO, said.

Stage3 uses AI and analytics to understand customer behaviour and build its inventory. “We are creating an app which can be synced with customers’ social calendar, so we can plan their outfits. We are also building up our data capabilities and investing in more detailed analysis on the supply and demand sides,” Sanchit, the chief business officer, said.

The startup raised $2 million in a Pre-Series A round from Blume Ventures in October. It previously raised undisclosed seed funding from individual investors, including Puneet Dalmia, the managing director of Dalmia Cement, and Anaita Shroff Adajania, the fashion director of Vogue magazine.

Stage3 has customers in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune, Jaipur, Lucknow, Nagpur, Ahmedabad and Ludhiana. It follows an omnichannel approach with offline stores that are called style rooms. The rental price ranges between Rs 1,500 and Rs 4,000, and the co-founders claim they see up to 20,000 customers a month. About 85% of the customers are women, but more men are also renting from the platform.

Stage3 has also partnered with production houses such as Red Chillies Entertainment and Yash Raj Films to help artistes rent outfits.

The company’s collection is mostly occasion wear, but it is now expanding to maternity and office outfits. “We are looking at offline expansion and plan to set up an experiential store in four weeks,” Sanchit said.


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