Bangalore-based Caravan Craft has raised a new round of funding amounting to $1.2 Mn (INR 8.5 Cr.) from existing investor, Unitus Seed Fund and others, taking the total funding raised by the company to $1.8 Mn (INR 12 Cr.). Other investors in the round included Bijou Kurien, ex-CEO at Reliance Retail and Narayan Ramachandran, ex-country head at Morgan Stanley.
In addition, the company has also secured a debt of $2 Mn (INR 14 Cr.) from National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) from a total project sanction of $6.3 Mn (INR 42 Cr.).
The secured funds will help the team to expand in India and other international markets.
Founded in 2008 by Kunal R. Sachdev, Caravan Craft develops and creates traditional Indian craft products for the urban Indian society. In doing so, the company aims to introduce a new avenue of livelihood for Indian artisans by providing them with a platform to build products under the ‘Caravan’ brand name.
Currently Caravan’s products are available across five category, namely, apparel, jewelry, home décor, gifts and toys and has an inventory of 2000 Stock Keeping Units (SKUs). It regularly works with individual artisans, artisan clusters, family units, NGOs, self-help groups amounting to a total no. of 20 and provides them with thorough training.
The company has about 560 artisans onboard and has trained around 7000 more.
Caravan had launched its first retail store in Bangalore and since then opened up two more stores in Pune and Mumbai. It’s now planning to launch its next store in Chennai by next month.
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