Breaking into Venture Capital: Fashion & Retail Tech Investing
Welcome back, fashion tech enthusiasts!
This article accompanies our podcast ‘VC Series’, 4 episodes in conversation with Rohan Bansal on the venture capital space. This is part 1 where we delve deeper into how someone interested in getting into venture capital breaks into the fashion and retail tech investing space.
Listen to the podcast episode here:
Fashion & Retail Tech Investing, Why Now?
Fashion tech is evolving from niche to necessity. Although with nearly $3B invested in 2024, the sector remains vastly underserved by specialised VCs. The landscape is evolving rapidly, creating unprecedented opportunities for venture capital investment and it seems that many fashion executives also agree.
According to McKinsey & Company’s State of Fashion 2025, over 50% of fashion executives are prioritising tech around AI for improving personalised retail experiences and optimising supply chain efficiencies. Monova, an AI-powered personal stylist is one example from the Beyond Form portfolio. Combining conversational recommendations and personalised curations for the user, it’s able to help online retailers maximise conversion rates.A blue ocean for emerging and seasoned investors, fashion and retail tech is relatively an untapped category when it comes to venture capital. There are few specialist funds and even fewer investors with relevant domain knowledge. But how does one get into VC investing in the first place?
Breaking into Fashion and Retail Tech VC Investing
Breaking into venture capital remains highly competitive in general, with hundreds of applicants vying for each position. While traditional paths like MBAs remain relevant, the industry increasingly values diverse backgrounds. Particularly noteworthy is that 40% of new VC hires in 2024 came from startup or tech backgrounds, signaling a shift toward practical experience over purely academic credentials. For those targeting fashion and retail tech specifically, Rohan emphasises the importance of understanding industry trends, building relationships with fashion groups and retailers, and recognizing the cyclical nature of the fashion industry.
One interesting aspect of Rohan's story is how his unconventional background—living in several countries across Europe and Asia since childhood—equipped him with unique perspectives that prove invaluable in the VC world. As he eloquently puts it, "Each country has its own idiosyncrasies and each market has its own idiosyncrasies... As an investor, you don't just invest in your reality, you invest in other people's reality as well." This global mindset allows investors to better understand various markets' nuances and consumer behaviors, a critical advantage when evaluating fashion tech opportunities across different regions.
The VC Advantage: More Than Capital
When discussing how VCs can provide value beyond capital—something many claim but fewer deliver—Rohan highlighted several concrete ways investors can support portfolio companies. These include connecting startups with potential clients for pilot programs, building roadmaps for product and geographical expansion, facilitating relationships with industry experts, and assisting with recruitment. For founders, Rohan advises careful scrutiny of potential investors' claims about added value, emphasizing that smart money requires a "concerted approach" from VCs who are genuinely committed to providing strategic support.
In fashion tech, “smart money” wins. The most effective investors go beyond funding, offering strategic connections, operational guidance, and market entry support. Participation in venture studios like Beyond Form and accelerators, like Techstars that FINDS completed and 500 Startups that Quissly recently finished, has led to greater funding, higher survival rates, and faster scaling. Founders must vet investors not just for capital, but for value-added capabilities and long-term alignment.
Startups that participate in venture studios or specialized accelerators experience:
3.4% higher follow-on funding rates
$1.8M more raised post-acceleration
23% greater 3-year survival rate
Founders & Networks: The Real Differentiators
Perhaps nothing matters more in fashion & retail tech VC than relationships and networks. The ability to access quality deal flow, validate opportunities through trusted connections, and provide portfolio companies with strategic introductions can differentiate exceptional investors from merely adequate ones.
They require consistent presence at industry events, engagement with sector-specific reports, and genuine relationship building with founders and co-investors
Despite rising momentum, fashion tech faces a persistent annual funding gap. The solution lies in collaboration: institutional investors, corporate arms, public entities, and accelerators must work together. Building sector-specific expertise and supporting.
This gap stems from several factors: a shortage of investors with genuine fashion industry experience, challenges in building specialized networks, and historically fewer headline-grabbing exits compared to other sectors. Closing this gap will require collaboration among diverse stakeholders, institutional investors, corporate venture arms, government entities, accelerators, and public funding sources.
Interested in Investing? Join Our Investor Network
Back Beyond Form’s founder-led portfolio,connect with the innovators redefining the industry, and gain exclusive access to investment opportunities atbeyondform.io/investors. Closing words for emerging VCs: avoid following hype cycles (like the temporary digital fashion boom during COVID), take a long-term perspective when evaluating opportunities, and incorporate devil's advocate thinking to challenge investment theses. As fashion tech continues to evolve, the investors who will succeed are those who combine global perspective with specialized industry knowledge, allowing them to identify sustainable opportunities amid constantly shifting trends.
