Flyrobe Aims to Become a ₹100 crore Business in 3 Years

Anchal Saini, Chief Executive Officer of fashion rental omnichannel player Flyrobe, on the complexities of the business, leveraging the C2C model and expansion plans

- Anagha Ratna

'The closet is full, yet I have nothing to wear' is a common conundrum women face. It's not about having less clothes but about having something different for every occasion. This was the problem Anchal Saini set out to address when she launched 'Rent It Bae' in 2016 under the parent company AARK World.

"Rental was the only solution. We started with renting western wear and accessories for women online. And eventually, the grand business turned out to be the rental of occasion wear category via the omnichannel route," said Saini, the 38-year-old entrepreneur.

The business grew and in 2019, Rent It Bae acquired a rival rental startup Flyrobe with a vision to multiply its business by 10 times. Founded by three IIT alumni Shreya Mishra, Pranay Surana, and Tushar Saxena in 2015, Flyrobe got merged into Rent It Bae. The merged entity retained the Flyrobe brand name.

"The reason for leading the business by the brand name Flyrobe is that enormous marketing dollars have been spent on branding Flyrobe and it's one million users in over 30 cities know the brand well," explained Saini, who is the chief executive officer of the company.

"The community created is strong. It made sense to stick to the name and grow it bigger," she said adding that Rent It Bae brand still exists on social media so that its community too is retained.

Flyrobe soon went omnichannel and today operates over 12 offline stores across cities such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Gurgaon, New Delhi, Ludhiana, Bhopal, Surat and Jaipur. It hosts more than 1,000 brands, employs a team of 30 individuals, and boasts a consumer base exceeding two million.