Private Label Lingerie Etailer Clovia Raises $4 Mn Funding From Singularity Ventures, Others

Online lingerie retailer Clovia has raised $4 Mn in an extension of its Series A funding from current and new investors including Singularity Ventures and former BCCL CEO Ravi Dhariwal.

Noida-based Clovia was founded in 2013, by husband-wife duo Neha Kant and Pankaj Vermani along with friends Suman Choudhry. It is a lingerie and sleepwear brand that designs, manufactures, and sells premium fashion lingerie, innerwear, nightwear, and shapewear. The company was earlier incubated at Mountain Apollo India.

The startup will utilise the newly raised funds for marketing, expanding sales channels and to boost product and technology development.

As per a company statement, it claims to receive over 1.5 Mn monthly visitors to its website. Currently, the startup claims to register nearly 80% sales on the mobile website and app.

Clovia offers nearly 200 styles per month and claims to sell over 250K units monthly. The team says that they have over 75% fresh inventory which is less than 45 days old.

Talking about the funding investor Ravi Dhariwal said, “I am impressed by the exponential strides Clovia has made in the fashion space,” said former BCCL CEO, Ravi Dhariwal. He further added, “I am impressed by the company’s good growth potential going forward and with the way, they have amalgamated technology and fashion to disrupt the lingerie industry.”

The startup raised an undisclosed Series A round of funding from IIT- and IIM alumni-backed venture capital firm IvyCap Ventures. It is also backed by Zurich-based Mountain Partners AG.

As per a report by Franchise India, the lingerie market in India is valued at about $3 Bn. Apart from popular brands like Amante, Enamor, Lovable, Rupa, Jockey, some new players have entered the segment to cash in on the booming ecommerce market in the country. Bengaluru-based online lingerie retailer Zivame pivoted to a private label business in September 2016  in order to improve its margins and thereby boost its revenues. Other startups in this segment include Buttercups, Prettysecrets, etc.