Bollywood Actor Sara Ali Khan Invests In D2C Startup The Souled Store

Mumbai-based casual wear and pop-culture D2C startup, The Souled Store has made Sara Ali Khan its equity partner. Khan has infused an undisclosed amount in the D2C startup. 

“I am delighted to partner with The Souled Store. In a short span of time, the brand has carved a niche for itself in the casual wear space. Being an ardent pop-culture lover, and a firm believer in originality and comfort being as important as fashion, I see the brand as a perfect fit to invest in. I look forward to being part of the TSS family,” said Sara Ali Khan. 

Founded in 2013 by Vedang Patel, Harsh Lal, Aditya Sharma and Rohin Samtaney, The Souled Store claims to have more than 180 licenses such as Disney, Warner Bros, WWE, IPL, and Viacom18. 

It claims to have introduced a series of campaigns featuring OTT and YouTube stars Ashish Chanchlani, Mithila Palkar, Ayush Mehra, Barkha Singh, Ahsaas Channa and others.

Its product portfolio includes top wear, bottom wear, innerwear and activewear for men as well as women. It further claims to have a customer base of over 4 Mn, and has an omnichannel presence with five offline stores. 

The startup previously got funding of INR 75 Cr from Elevation Capital. The investment round also saw participation from angel investors and startup founders including – Sahil Barua, cofounder Delhivery; Gunjan Soni, CEO, Zalora; Revant Bhate, cofounder, Mosaic Wellness; Ramakant Sharma, founder, Livspace among others.

The Souled Store is going to deploy the capital to expand its licensed merchandise and casual wear product portfolio, expand its manufacturing capabilities, invest in marketing and offline retail presence, and hiring. It further planned to expand its retail footprint to 15 cities in India.

One of its competitors, D2C brand Bewakoof raised $8.09 Mn in its Pre-Series B funding round led by existing investor InvestCorp, in August 2021. The round also saw participation from IvyCap Ventures and Spring Marketing Capital. The startup has so far raised INR 170 Cr–it last raised funding in March 2021 in Series A funding round of INR 30 Cr.

The brand deployed funds to scale up the business, marketing and talent acquisition, and sign A-list celebrities. It further planned to launch marketing campaigns across digital, print, TV and OOH to explore new customer bases as it aims to clock INR 2,000 Cr in sales by 2025. 

According to the Inc42 DataLabs, the online fashion market was pegged at $17.8 Bn in H1 2021 and is expected to touch $43.2 Bn by 2025. More interestingly, the online market accounts for 33% of the entire fashion market in India and may capture about 50% of the market share by 2025.