Lingerie Startup Clovia Raises $10 Mn Series B Led By AT Capital

Delhi-based lingerie startup Clovia has raised $10 Mn in a Series B funding round led by AT Capital. Existing investors Ivy Cap Ventures and some private investors also joined the round.

Pankaj Vermani, CEO and founder, Clovia, said that the funds will primarily be used for its product and technology development, scaling up the brand portfolio, expanding to newer geographies, increasing operational efficiencies and strengthening the team.

Founded in 2013, by husband-wife duo Neha Kant and Pankaj Vermani along with Suman Choudhry, Clovia is a lingerie and sleepwear brand that designs, manufactures, and sells premium fashion lingerie, innerwear, nightwear, and shapewear.

The company claims to sell over 5 Mn lingerie products a month, and records nearly 3/4th of its business coming from the online model. The company launched its offline channels almost one and a half year back and now boasts of 12 exclusive brand outlets and more than 100 sale touch points including retail chains like Central and Brand Factory. It also claims that all these offline channels are profitable to the business.

Sanjay Bakliwal, AT Capital, said, “It’s impressive the way they have grown over the past few years on the back of the product and supply-chain innovation. We believe Clovia is on a path to gaining a leadership position in the Indian lingerie industry and look forward to being a part of their growth journey.”

The company also expanded overseas last year. It boasts of technology prowess which includes its proprietary customer data analytics that foresees sales trends and plans production planning. Clovia offers nearly 200 styles per month.

Clovia also sells through its website and partner websites such as Myntra, Jabong etc. The company has noticed that about 60% of its revenues come from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.

Prior to this round, the company has raised funds from IvyCap Ventures, Singularity Ventures and Ravi Dhariwal, former chief executive of Bennett, Coleman and Company Ltd and Zurich-based Mountain Partners AG.

part 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. In this space, Clovia rivals against players like Buttercups, Zivame, Prettysecrets, Cilory, and Shyaway, among others.

In a What The Financials analysis, Inc42 DataLabs noted that in the race to the top of the online lingerie game is actually between two brands and not three — Zivame and Clovia are pretty much leading the pack, while PrettySecrets lags behind in. Zivame has attracted the maximum investment through fundraising, while Clovia is focusing on technology and expanding in smaller towns.

According to a report by Franchise India, the lingerie market in India is valued at about $3 Bn, growing at a CAGR of 42.32% between 2014 and 2019.

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