American e-tailer Aksel Paris raises $500k

Aksel Group Inc, the holding company behind AkselParis.com,

a direct-to-consumer fashion company, has announced it has raised $500,000 led by Inspiration Ventures. The new funding is to help bring European fashion styles to American online shoppers, and to expand its line. The first full collection of European-made scarves and coats is expected to be available in several weeks.

Aksel Paris sells luxury men’s clothing and accessories at a significant discount, 30% to 50% cheaper than department stores, according to CEO, Yazid Aksas, “I quickly realised that we could deliver clothes that are better quality than the big brands found at high-end department stores, and we could also make them affordable to the everyday man by cutting out the stores’ commissions.”

The men’s fashion e-tailer is positioning itself as a ‘one-stop shop for men’, and will soon begin distributing European brands that are not available in the US.

“Over the past couple of months we’ve been approached by many brands that have zero presence in the US. In the offline world, those brands would have to go through a lot of pain in order to reach American customers, we are solving that problem,” says Aksas. “We will be distributing around 20 very cool European brands by the end of the year.”

The online retailer also received funds from David McClure’s 500Startups, serial entrepreneur Fabrice Grinda founder of OLX, IG Expansion’s Jose Marin, Paul Bragiel of I/O Ventures and French entrepreneur Nicolas Bernadi.