Clovia Looks To Expand Into New Categories With Funding From Golden Birch, SheCapital

Noida-headquartered online lingerie retailer Clovia has raised $4 Mn in a Pre-Series C round led by a clutch of investors including Golden Birch Investments and SheCapital Venture Fund. 

With the funding round, Clovia also announced the appointment of Anisha Singh, founder of SheCapital Venture Fund, to its Board of Directors. The company said that Singh’s appointment would help Clovia tailor its customer-focused strategy at the topmost level in the company hierarchy. 

According to the company, the new funds would be utilised for growth in all key business segments of the firm, as well as expanding into new categories, pushing the brand message, enhancing technology, and strengthening all verticals in the company. 

“We welcome the trust reposed in Clovia by our new and existing investors. This funding puts us in a strong position to continue making an impact in 2021,” said Pankaj Vermani, CEO and founder of Clovia. 

“Our categories are essential products in the wardrobe and work-from-home has given a further boost to the sales both for innerwear and our loungewear. Activewear is also coming up as one of the core categories for us. In the next 2-3 years, we plan to continue to grow from strength to strength on the back of category growth, and product innovation,” he added. 

Clovia claimed to have attained a 50% growth in business compared to the fiscal year 2018-19 (FY19) with 85% sales coming from online channels. Further, the company said that it had seen a 6x scale in sleepwear and loungewear, 3x scale in maternity lingerie, and feeding nightwear. Clovia also claimed to have achieved profitability post lockdown with a double-digit EBITDA at the back of improved gross margins.

The company said that it is manufacturing almost a million units per month and shipping close to 2 Mn units in a quarter.

Founded in 2013 by Neha Kant and Pankaj Vermani, Clovia is present in more than 200 stores across 50 locations, which includes metros as well as tier 2 and tier 3 cities. Of these, 13 are EBOs or exclusive brand outlets across Delhi-NCR, Punjab and Gujarat. It competes against players such as Zivame, Prettysecrets, Cilory, Shyaway among major lingerie and innerwear brands.

According to data on Crunchbase, the company has till date raised $18.7 Mn in four funding rounds. It last raised funds in January last year, worth $10 Mn in a round led by AT Capital.

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