Lingerie e-tailer Zivame gets bridge funding

Lingerie e-tailer Zivame has raised Rs 60 crore (around $8.6 million at the current exchange rate) in a bridge round of funding.

Existing investor Zodius Technology Fund led the investment while a clutch of high-net-worth individuals also participated in what is an extended Series C round, Zivame said in a statement. Financial services firm Avendus Capital is the parent of Zodius Technology Fund.

Zivame said that it will use the fresh capital to boost its retail, technology, product development and omnichannel initiatives. The Bengaluru-based company also has plans to raise a larger round later in the year, it added.

"We continue to build the category as the Indian lingerie market is largely unorganised and under-served,” said Amisha Jain, chief executive officer of Zivame.

Run by Actoserba Active Wholesale Pvt. Ltd, Zivame was founded in 2011 by Richa Kar who previously worked with German software firm SAP.

The company deals in lingerie, lounge wear, swimwear, nightwear and allied categories. It recently added categories like fashion apparel to its offerings.

After starting out as an aggregator, Zivame pivoted to a private label business in the middle of 2016. Zivame has a number of private labels including Penny and Coucou and more than 60% of its revenue comes from its in-house products.

It has also adopted an omnichannel approach and currently has a presence at more than 30 physical stores with plans to double that number in a year’s time.

In May last year, the firm underwent a management change and brought on board Amisha Jain as its CEO in place of Shaleen Sinha.

In the same month, existing investor Zodius Capital hiked its shareholding in Zivame by buying out the stake of venture capital firms Kalaari Capital and IDG Ventures.

In September 2015, Zivame had raised Rs 250 crore in its Series C funding round from Zodius Technology Fund and Khazanah Nasional Bhd, the investment holding arm of the Malaysian government.

The company managed to shore up revenues while narrowing its losses in the financial year 2017-18.

It posted net sales of Rs 86.6 crore for the year ended March 2018, a significant increase from Rs 52.9 crore in the previous fiscal. The company’s total income in 2017-18 rose almost 56% to Rs 94.25 crore compared to Rs 60.25 crore in the previous fiscal.

Rival e-tailer, Clovia, which is run by Delhi-based Purple Panda Fashions Pvt. Ltd, had in January raised $10 million (Rs 71 crore) in its Series B funding round led by AT Capital Pte. Ltd, which specialises in buyout and growth capital. 

Clovia pared its losses as its revenue rose for the financial year ended March 2018. Net sales grew 34% to Rs 51.8 crore for 2017-18 from Rs 38.7 in the year before that. Clovia cut its net losses to Rs 8.6 crore for 2017-18 from Rs 10.2 crore the previous year.