Zivame's Richa Kar steps away from day-to-day operations, COO to take over

Richa Kar, founder and chief executive of online lingerie retailer Zivame, has relinquished control of the company's business operations.

In what is being touted as an investor-led restructuring, chief operating officer Shaleen Sinha will be in-charge of running the lingerie e-commerce company, a report in The Economic Times said.

"Richa Kar continues to be the CEO of Zivame. She works closely with the board on strategic projects for the company. She has moved away from the day-to-day business operations," the report quoted a spokesperson from Zivame as saying.

An email query to Zivame seeking further information did not elicit a response at the time of filing this report.

Sinha was appointed as COO in 2015. Prior to joining Zivame, he was a senior executive at the Aditya Birla Group, where he led consumer franchises within ABG which span Idea, More, Madura and Pantaloons.

In September 2015, Zivame raised Rs 250 crore (around $40 million) in a Series C round of funding from Zodius Technology Fund and Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah. Its existing investors Unilazer, IDG Ventures and Kalaari Capital also participated in the round.

The startup had previously raised around $9 million in two rounds of funding from IDG Ventures, Kalaari Capital and Unilazer Ventures. Zivame, run by Actoserba Active Wholesale Pvt Ltd, was founded by Kar in August 2011.

The company's net loss widened to Rs 54 crore for 2015-16 from Rs 29.5 crore the year before, according to data sourced by VCCEdge, the research arm of VCCircle, from the Registrar of Companies. It reported 38% growth in net sales at Rs 62.6 crore and a 57% jump in total expenses to Rs 118.8 crore during the period.