It’s time for VCs to break up with fast fashion

Quick style is an trade ensnared in labor points and copyright issues, and it has an immense environmental impact as a consequence of its wastewater and carbon emissions. It additionally occurs to have the potential to make some huge cash, quick.

However regardless of all these points, VCs received’t cease loving the sector.

On Wednesday, my colleague Manish Singh wrote a scoop a few potential Accel funding into Newme, a fast-fashion startup based mostly in India. Newme is an app-based retailer that produces 500 new gadgets every week with a median price ticket of $10. This information comes only a week after the corporate closed a seed spherical.

Accel and Newme didn’t reply to requests for remark.

Newme seems to be very very similar to many different VC-backed fast-fashion startups like Shein, which has raised $4 billion, and Cider, an Andreessen Horowitz–backed startup valued at $1 billion. Cider says it’s on-demand stock makes it a extra moral fast-fashion choice. That’s up for debate, although.

Accel’s potential funding into Newme stood out to me for a couple of causes, the most important of which is that I’m simply not likely positive why VCs again these corporations.

Quick-fashion corporations gained speedy recognition and enormous followings due to their potential to deliver garments from the runway to your native division retailer in file time. However the truth is that always, they’ll solely churn out garments so rapidly by reducing corners. The one approach to make this technique work is by utilizing low-cost supplies and low-cost — and certain underpaid — labor, and in lots of instances, by copying designs.