Shopping App Mallzee raises £500k

by Startacus Admin

If you are anything like us the odd fashion faux pas (or ‘wardrobe malfunction’ as the cool kids are calling it these days) is a sad but inevitable part of your existence.  In 2013 a faint glimmer of hope came to our fashion Horizon courtesy of Cally Russell and his brilliant shopping App Mallzee.

We were mighty impressed with this innovative and genuinely useful offering and it seems we aren’t the only ones, with Malzee just announcing a huge £500k investment!

At the tender age of just 1 year, this latest impressive investment will pave the way for international expansion and double the size of their team to 14 staff over the next twelve months. Our friends at Mallzee have already tasted international success, having been highlighted by Yahoo as one of the top six apps changing the way the world shops forever (and of course being featured on Startacus previously). 

If you can’t quite remember what’s so special about Malzee, here’s a quick refresher

In a nutshell Malzee will help you discover clothes that suit you quickly and easily.   It’s kind of like having a personal shopper in your pocket – with over one million items of clothing – and, just like a personal shopper, the more you tell the app what you like, the better it gets.  But crucially for those of you not inclined to leave your fashion choices up to a machine, Mallzee also has a social media twist – you can ask your friends their opinion on an item and if they give it the ‘thumbs down’ you will have to change their minds before you can purchase it.  

After the newly received investment was announced, our friend Cally had this to say about the app,

“We’ve just released a new version which is much faster and adds lots of exciting new retailers. Later this year we’ll be opening up the app to other countries and will be aiming to follow in the footsteps of Skyscanner and build a global business from Edinburgh that changes an industry. By the end of 2014 we aim to increase our user base from the tens of thousands to 250,000 shoppers all around the world.’”   

There is no doubt the guys at Mallzee have got the attention of the fashion world and are setting up to truly change the way we shop – with the £500k investment coming from Par Equity, the Scottish Investment Bank and leading angel investors Gareth Williams, CEO of Skyscranner and serial investor Rob Dobson. 

Congratulations again to all the Team at Mallzee, and as always we will be keeping a very close eye to see what exciting stuff they get up to next!

Penned by Dermot McBride

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Published on: 23rd May 2014