Australian start up “Shoes of Prey” appears to be in a difficult situation, with attempts to secure new funding.
Founded in 2009, the Australian start-up showed great promise, introducing a new way for women to shop for shoes online.
They offered a platform which lets women design their own shoes online and have them delivered in approximately two weeks.
Shoes of Prey has raised a total of $US 29.5 million since its launch and is looking to get an additional $3 million in a “bridge round,” to help fund a new business model.
This new strategy focuses on “Cinderellas,” which are customers with very specific requirements in terms of shoe sizes (outside of the standard ranges). Shoes of Prey also plans to try their hand at private label manufacturing for other brands.
Jodie Fox, co-founder said:
“The terms are significantly lower than our last round of funding, but with no alternatives other than winding up the company our board today resolved to recommend this offer to shareholders,”
However, with this new strategy, Fox said that the early results were “very promising.”
Shoes of Prey intend to use the additional funding to test the markets for new opportunities, such as women with unique shoe size needs and private labelling for other companies. There are approximately 50 brands that may potentially use this private labelling service.
Shoes of Prey made a net loss of approximately $6 million last year, with forecasts expecting them to turn profitable by 2021, with a forecasted net revenue of $44 million.
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