Excl: VC-backed lingerie e-tailer Zivame scouting for buyers

Three-year-old lingerie e-tailer Zivame.com, run by Bangalore-based Actoserba Active Wholesale Pvt Ltd, is looking at the handful of horizontal e-commerce firms as possible buyers, according to sources privy to the development. The firm has already appointed an investment banker to scout for a potential buyer.

When contacted, the founder of the firm Richa Kar refused to comment.

To date, the firm has raised around $9 million in two rounds of funding from IDG Ventures, Kalaari Capital and Unilazer Ventures.

The top three Indian horizontal e-commerce firms are Flipkart, Snapdeal and HomeShop18. Snapdeal counts Kalaari Capital as a common investor with Zivame.

Many firms in the niche e-commerce space which lost out in the winners-take-it-all market to be market leaders in respective verticals or those which are finding it difficult to sustain in a vertical which is facing tough competition from horizontal firms themselves, have been facing a funding crunch.

At the same time, horizontal players like Flipkart and Snapdeal have scooped up large amounts and are not averse to buying others.

Zivame started operations in August 2011 and deals in lingerie, loungewear, swimwear, nightwear and allied categories.

The firm refused to comment on revenues but revealed that it is shipping close to 1 lakh products a month and have grown at 300 per cent since last year. VCCircle understands the firm did revenues of Rs 7 crore but clocked net loss of Rs 8 crore for the year ended March 2013. The company's latest financials could not be ascertained.

In an earlier interaction in October 2012, Kar had shared that the firm was shipping 500-600 orders a day with the average transaction value being upwards of Rs 1,200.

Other players in the lingerie e-tail segment are MyLace, StrapsAndStrings, ShopImagine, Oyegirl, Cilory, HerStyle and PrettySecrets.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)