A mobile commerce company that promises a "new way to shop" has recently announced the initial close of its seed round.
Dash Hudson, an app that encourages clothes-hounds to buy trending clothes with a single tap, raised $1 million dollars in participation from angel investors. GoInstant co-founders Jevon MacDonald and Gavin Uhma, and Innovacorp were the major backers for the mobile commerce company.
"We killed the shopping cart," the company claims on its website. "Save your information once, and then sit back and enjoy." The simple, yet effective marketing strategy has inspired publications such as Fader, Fashionista, Fast Company, and StyleBistro to all write about Dash Hudson and its ability to solve the "Instagram-Shopping" problem.
Over 2,000 brands are available within one click of their respective customers through Dash Hudson. By combining the love of lifestyle and fashion, with the hottest social media network to date, Dash Hudson has become a place for shoppers to discover fashion by which to be inspired. The company also revealed that it is negotiations on an additional close.
"Our content has reached an audience of over three million since we launched the platform in December," said Thomas Rankin, CEO of Dash Hudson. "The focus on featuring brands in beautiful, organic lifestyle images that can be shopped has created levels of engagement and conversion that we did not expect so early on."
After becoming frustrated with their own mobile shopping experiences, Rankin and his co-founding partner, Tomek Niewiarowski, devised Dash Hudson as an opportunity to redefine shopping for today’s consumers.
"For our audience, Instagram is their stage, their glossy mag, and their shopping mall," Rankin said. “With brands spending over $1 billion per year on Instagram marketing, with no ROI, there’s a big opportunity for us to help turn that spend into meaningful results."
For those unsure as to how Dash Hudson actually works, once the app is downloaded, creators then upload a photo and tag the brands they’re wearing. Afterward, users share the image to their Instagram feed. Whenever one’s followers like the photo, they are delivered from the Instagram page to the shoppable products located at Dash Hudson -- all in one click. Users then can shop, picking what they want to purchase and then can check out using traditional payment methods, Android Pay, Google Wallet and Apple Pay.
Dash Hudson handles processing and shipping with the product provider.
Previously, Dash Hudson was able to secure a wealth of money in a round of angel financing back in June 2014. Led by former Groupon chief technology officer Paul Gauthier and Academy Award winning producer and DHX Media cofounder Charles Bishop, Dash Hudson earned $400,000.
Photo: Dash Hudson
