Curated Accessories Startup Boticca Acquires Local French Player, Begins International Expansion

Hot on the heals of its $4M Series A round led-by London-based MMC Ventures, ‘curated’ accessories market Boticca is gunning to be the ‘Fab of accessories’, rolling out internationally. It last funding rounding had a heavy French investor participation – including French Internet entrepreneurs’ fund ISAI – and sure enough its new roll-out is in… France.

Boticca’s main ‘appeal’ is that women get connected to the designer, which is an important component of this market and their brand.

It’s acquiring L’Atelier De La Mode, a leading Paris-based fashion designer marketplace, and simultaneously launching its French website Boticca.fr, its first non-English language website.

Launched in 2008 by Jonathan Lipfeld, L’Atelier De La Mode has garnered close to 100,000 customers in France which now brings Boticca’s own database to 500,000 customers globally. L’Atelier De La Mode’s site will be redirected to Boticca.fr. No employees from L’Atelier De La Mode will be joining Boticca as part of the transaction. The acquisition was for cash and terms were undisclosed sum.

“France was the logical geography for us to begin our internationalisation strategy”, says Kiyan Foroughi, Boticca CEO and co-founder “it’s our number one non-English speaking market, fourth globally in terms of sales after the UK, the US and Australia. The French market is full of potential and we look forward to making the most of it”. It might help that Foroughi and cofounder Avid Larizadeh, are French and grew up in Paris.

Similar US-based companies are doing well. Gemvara has raised $45.2M in total to date. BeachMint has raised $73.5M for its Jewelmint brand.