Rent The Runway, the Netflix for designer clothes, accessories and jewelry; has acquired Go Try It On, a startup that allows users to share photos of themselves and get opinions on their looks. As part of the acquisition, Go Try It On’s founder Marissa Evans will join Rent the Runway as Head of Radical Innovation. Financial terms of the acquisition was not disclosed.
Go Try It On allows you to upload a photo of yourself (with Instagram-like filters), add descriptions of the brands you are wearing and include context around the choice of the outfit (i.e. concert, holiday party). The site’s community can then comment on the site and provide feedback on fellow members’ outfits. Users can choose to ask the greater Go Try It On community, just share with their friends on Facebook, or ask a brand or professional stylist for advice.
The startup has also partnered with a number of fashion brands including Barney’s New York, Sephora, Rebecca Minkoff, Kimberly Ovitz, NET-A-PORTER.COM and Cut25 by Yigal Azrouël to include pieces for users to buy from the app. Go Try It On, which has raised $3 million in funding from SPA Investments, Index Ventures and others; says it has 400,000 iPhone app users.
For background, Rent The Runway allows women to rent designer clothes and accessories at a marked down price. Once you pick a design on the site that you’d like to wear, you can schedule a delivery date. Rent The Runway will send two sizes, to ensure that you receive a dress that fits. Rentals on the site run from $50 to $200 for a four night loan, or 10% of the retail price. The startup has over 3 million members and 170 designer brands.
The acquisition is partly for talent, and partly for technology. The addition of Evans, who understands the fashion-tech world, is an asset for Rent The Runway.
Rent The Runway has also been trying to add more social features and recently introduced its own online social shopping platform, Our Runway, which allows women to shop based on user-generated photos of real women with similar body types. The app allows women to enter their height, bust size, dress size and age, in order to view thousands of diverse women with comparable shapes in dresses available for rent.
Rent The Runway, which has raised $54 million in funding, is backed by AmEx, Condé Nast Publications, Bain Capital Ventures, Highland Capital Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Novel TMT Ventures.