D2C Activewear Brand BlissClub Raises $15 Mn From Eight Road Ventures, Others

Women’s activewear brand BlissClub has raised $15 Mn in a Series A funding round led by Eight Roads Ventures and Elevation Capital.

The round also saw participation from angel investors Sriharsha Majety from Swiggy, Ghazal Alagh from Mamaearth, Vivek Gupta and Abhay Hanjura from Licious, former Myntra CEO Amar Nagaram, Munish Varma and Sumer Juneja from SoftBank, Brennan Loh from Shopify and fashion influencer Masoom Minawala. 

The fresh capital will be deployed for research and development, product development, team expansion and developing its omnichannel approach. 

The latest development comes after BlissClub secured a $2.25 Mn in a seed funding round led by Elevation Capital for hiring talent, product development and funding its marketing activities. 

Good Capital and other angel investors including Neeraj Arora from WhatsApp, Kunal Shah from CRED, Rahul Mehta from DST, Pam Lee from Lululemon, Ashish Goel from Urban Ladder, and Chakradhar Gade from Country Delight also participated in that round.

Founded in 2020 by Minu Margeret, Bengaluru-based D2C startup BlissClub offers a wide range of women’s activewear including bottomwear, sports bras, tops, tees and co-ords to consumers. It also offers reward points to customers under BlissQueen Royalty Program. It presently operates with 10 stock keeping units (SKUs). 

As per the statement, BlissClub has grown sales by 25X since its last fundraising deal in May 2021. It aims to achieve INR 100 Cr annual revenue run-rate (ARR) this year. It claims to have grown 45% month-on-month (MoM) with only ten products in its portfolio. 

BlissClub faces competition from the likes of HRX, Adidad, Freecultr, Reebok, Creez, Yogue and Athlos in the D2C activewear market. 

India’s D2C Apparel Market

According to an Inc42 report, the Indian D2C market is anticipated to reach $100 Bn by 2025. Out of all the sub-segments of the D2C industry, apparel and footwear are one of the important fashion categories that are anticipated to account for about 77.6% of the total online fashion market by 2025. 

The D2C clothing market is witnessing a slew of fundraising deals. In April this year, Surat-based men’s apparel brand XYXX raised an undisclosed amount of investment from Indian cricketer KL Rahul for strengthening its online presence and expanding its footprint.

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

In February this year, Bengaluru-based men’s clothing brand DaMENSCH raised $16.4 Mn (INR 122.7 Cr) in a Series B funding round led by A91 Partners. The round saw participation from its existing investors such as Matrix Partners, Whiteboard Venture Partners, and Saama Capital. 

In January this year, another D2C clothing brand startup Freecultr raised $5 Mn in a Series A funding round led by Sixth Sense Ventures. The funds were raised for team expansion, specialised consumer outreach, brand building, product and category expansion. 

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