​Exclusive: Women's apparel e-tailer eShakti raises fresh funding

Chennai-based eShakti Pvt. Ltd, operator of an online women's apparel retailer, has raised fresh funding from two investors, a person familiar with the development told VCCircle.

eShakti, which targets the US and Canda and operates an Indian e-commerce unit under Zapelle, raised Rs 9 crore ($1.34 million) through a preferential allotment of shares.

The round was led by Infina Finance Pvt. Ltd, an investment firm jointly controlled by Kotak Mahindra Bank and its promoter Uday Kotak in his personal capacity. Financial services provider Polaris Banyan Holding Pvt. Ltd also participated in this round, the person cited above said.

Email queries to eShakti, Infina Finance and Polaris Banyan didn't elicit any response by the time of writing this report.

Founded in 1999 by BG Krishnan, eShakti began as a website offering basic cottons and embellished pieces. It now focuses on made-to-measure and made-by-design mainstream fashion clothing for women. It does not stock any sizes, and each style is cut to order.

The firm's design teams are based in New York, London and India. The clothing is made in India in its own factories and other local factories. Operationally, it is present in Delhi and Chennai, and its subsidiary has an office in New York and a customer service facility near Seattle.

In 2014, the company raised an undisclosed amount in funding from IvyCap Ventures and IDG Ventures India.

The fashion e-commerce segment in India is dominated by Flipkart, which owns fashion e-tailers Myntra and Jabong.

The fashion e-tailing market is likely to account for 35% of total online spending in India by 2020 and become the largest category ahead of consumer electronics.

Voonik, Yufta, StyleTag, Wooplr, Cloutloot and StalkBuyLove are among the fashion e-commerce startups that have received funding in the past six months.

Voonik has also been acquiring or acqui-hiring startups to expand. In June, it acqui-hired Zohraa, a marketplace for designers and boutiques; Styl, a salon and spa booking app; and Picksilk, an online silk store.

Earlier, Voonik acqui-hired Bengaluru-based shopping site for men Getsy in February and bought TrialKart, a mobile platform that provides a virtual dressing room experience, in August 2015.

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