SUMMARY
The funding will largely be used to grow Sukkhi as an omnichannel brand
As part of the investment, Anurag Bhargava of Duane Park has joined the board as Chairman
Hithendra Ramachandran of Carpediem Capital has joined as Director
Mumbai-based fashion jewellery brand Sukkhi has raised $7 Mn in funding from Gurugram-based private equity fund manager Carpediem Capital and Delhi-based Duane Park.
Bhavesh Navlakha, Founder and CEO, of Sukkhi, said that the funding will largely be used to grow “Sukkhi” as an omnichannel brand in order to reach last mile customers across India and globally.
As part of the deal, Anurag Bhargava of Duane Park has joined the board as Chairman, and Hithendra Ramachandran of Carpediem Capital has joined as Director.
Founded in 2012, Sukkhi began with a vision to provide quality and trendy fashion jewellery products to consumers at competitive prices. After starting as an offline-only brand, the company launched its own website in October 2016 and has widened its reach to 27 different marketplaces, including two international markets.
Anurag Bhargava, founder of Duane Park said, “I am excited to join the board as Chairman to shepherd growth in the online channel as well as offline channels, including kiosks, shop-in-shops, and exclusive outlets.”
At present, online contributes one-third of the revenues for Sukkhi and the company claims to grow at a CAGR of over 100% since inception with it being one of the highest selling brands in the fashion jewellery category on Amazon and Flipkart, as well as on most of the e-tailers on which the brand is listed.
The products of Sukkhi made it to the top-selling brand in fashion jewellery for recently concluded festive season sales of ecommerce companies Flipkart and Amazon.
Hithendra Ramachandran, Managing Director, Carpediem Capital said, “Fashion jewellery has been a large but highly fragmented market. Over the last 5 years, Sukkhi has grown as a highly reliable consumer brand, driven by design, quality assurance through warranty, and competitive pricing. We believe that fashion jewellery is poised to grow leaps, and Sukkhi will play a key role in building this category.”
Fashion Jewellery: Style With Vibe
India’s relationship with jewellery goes back to time immemorial and is entrenched in tradition, relationships, the rites of passage — from birth to marriage to even death.
Even as gold, silver, platinum, white gold etc continue to keep the people engaged and enthralled, fashion jewellery has become the new statement of cool and chic with several players offering low to medium budget fashion jewellery.
Indeed, the imitation jewellery market in India is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of around 20% over the period 2014-2018, says RNCOS in its latest report “India Imitation Jewellery Market Outlook 2018″.
Some of the major players in the segment include Pipa+Bella, Melorra, Bluestone, Caratlane, Fourseven, Voylla among others.
Recently, Mumbai-based fashion accessories etailer Pipa+Bella secured $1 Mn in a funding round led by Fireside Ventures. Existing investors also participated in this round.
Prior to this, online jewellery brand Melorra had raised $5 Mn from LightBox Ventures at the seed stage.
The demand for fashion jewellery has grown significantly in the last few years due to high prices of gold and silver and is estimated to be a $6 Bn market.
Online jewellery sales are gaining ground and, according to the IBEF report, is estimated to account for 1-2% of the fine jewellery segment by 2021-22.
It may seem like a small percentage, but it amounts to a substantial figure given that the size of Indian jewellery market is huge — it is currently valued at close to $60 Bn and is expected to touch $100 Bn – $110 Bn in next four to five years.
With a huge growing market and a big boost from the investors, it’s time for Sukkhi’s huge leap.
