One year ago we launched the first ever fashion rental app in the UK and have now grown into a strong and diverse community of over 30,000 Rotators renting and lending across the country! Founder Eshita Kabra-Davies reflects on highlights that have marked this whirlwind of a year. Read on to take a trip down memory lane with us.
Exactly a year ago in October 2019 We launched the first version of our app after trialling the concept with a beta website version. Our launch day, covered by the Business of Fashion, was also the day Eshita left her 6-year long career in investment management. Shortly after we were mentioned in Business of Fashion as a peer-to-peer rental start-up taking on Rent the Runway.
In March Refinery29 nominated Eshita amongst the 14 powerful women leading the fight against climate change alongside Greta Thunberg, Dr Jane Goodall and more.
The end of March also so the beginning of the pandemic which for a new business owner of a start-up brought on a lot of uncertainty. We decided to donate a free rental to all NHS staff for when it was all over. We hoped that the small gesture would show our love and support for frontline workers.
By April we were in full lockdown, which gave us the time to finalise a special app feature we had been working on, the Impact Scale. The calculator shows Rotators how much water, energy and CO2 they were saving by renting rather than buying. Perhaps the most exciting news of the month however, was that Stacey Dooley listed items from her wardrobe on the app with profits going to Refuge charity tackling domestic violence.
In May we relaunched our website and were featured on Sky news as well as British Vogue's print issue for the first time.
In June a Rotator spotted us in Tech Crunch featured as “Rising Star” in their European consumer tech report. An incredibly proud moment considering how young we were and the caliber of peers mentioned alongside us!
July was an exciting month, we were nominated by Draper's as 'Ones To Watch' and shortly after spotted ourselves on the App Store as the top apps for second-hand gems alongside Depop and Vestiaire. Business Insider featured us as the rental platform to watch as our numbers grew during lockdown.
In August we wake up on the morning of the 5th to find ourselves featured as App Of The Day! An incredible honour and huge milestone for us. In August, we were also featured on Vogue Business where founder Eshita spoke about why fashion must include racial equality.
Which brings us to this month, October 2020! To end our first year with a bang we were published in Vogue India's print issue, as well as Pandora Syke's book 'How do we know we're doing it right?'. The month is not yet over and we have a few more exciting bits planned for you, our Rotators. Make sure to watch this space and for now, as a token of our appreciation we'd love to share a discount code for 15% off your next rental with code 'BDAY15'. Valid until 31st October midnight and can be used on advance bookings.
