Re.Mu is a fashion curation startup based in Taiwan. Re.Mu lets users upload pictures of their clothes and accessories by different categories, also offering a way for people to organize and keep track of their clothes, bags, shoes etc. It has recently received an undisclosed amount of seed round funding from TMI and KAMIA ventures. The startup plans to use the funding to hire people and expand to South East Asia and the US market.
Re.Mu was founded in late 2012 by Alvin Woon and Emily Yang. It is available as an app on iOS (released in late September 2013) and Android (released in mid November 2013) and as a web-based version.
The startup claims to have 30,000+ users in Taiwan and close to 400,000 page views a month. The company shared that they have seen initial traction from the US, Japan and Chile. Currently there are more than 50,000 pictures uploaded and more than 200,000 votes/comments generated on the site. They’ve also collaborated with fashion retailers and media such as she.com.tw on marketing campaigns.
Re.Mu is planning to expand to South East Asia, given the geographic proximity to Taiwan. Thailand will be the first stop due to the country’s high engagement in social media and fashion-conscious consumers. The company has already formed local partnerships and has managed to break into the top 50 iPhone apps in the social networking category in the country.
The fashion startup is exploring multiple monetization models in the future, like affiliate marketing, providing marketing services to fashion brands, becoming a platform where fashion designers can promote and sell to a targeted group of international users, or community-based market places, where users promote and sell directly to other users.
The company is currently considering adding community-driven features such as forums to offer more value to and increase interaction among the users. They released a new feature last week which helps calculate how much money a user spend on shopping a year.
“(Mainland) China is definitely on our radar and some of our most active users are actually from China. However the Chinese market has become ultra competitive in the last couple years and will require a lot more investment in terms of technology, capital, local connections, and time. It is something we will consider perhaps in the next phase of expansion,” added the Re.Mu team on plans for Mainland China.
Re.Mu founder, Alvin Woon who previously sold his consulting company and founded Plurk.com, believes fashion commerce has been littered with so many products that shoppers are having a hard time just knowing what to click. “As a new generation of social media-savvy shoppers come of age, retailers and e-commerce sites need to think about how they’re adapting to new standards. People want to be told what to buy, what kind of shirts go well with what kind of pant, what’s the color of the season, how to mix and match your high school sweater, etc etc. This is why curation services are gaining a lot of traction and why e-commerce stores are launching their own fashion blogs. People go there to look at beautiful things and learn about how to look good. These sites tend to have a chief tastemaker, usually the founder. Now what if everyone can be a tastemaker and you get to choose who to follow? Real people sharing their awesome closets. That’s RE.MU,” he shares.
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