Clovia, a private label lingerie brand, said on Tuesday that it has raised $4 million from two investors, Singularity Ventures and Ravi Dhariwal.
The start-up said it would utilise the money for various business purposes, including expansion in a market whose size is estimated at about Rs12,510 crore and growing at a CAGR of around 15 percent.
"We are excited to welcome new investors in Clovia. We look forward to a long-term relationship with them," Pankaj Vermani, chief executive officer and co-founder at Clovia said in a statement by the DealStreetAsia.
In its previous fund-raising round, Clovia — which sells lingerie on clovia.com in addition to partner retail stores — had raised $4.7 million from IvyCap Ventures in June 2015.
Clovia is owned by Delhi-based Purple Panda Fashions Pvt. Ltd.
Originally founded as Cloe by Neha Kant and her husband Pankaj Vermani along with friends Suman Choudhry and Aditya Chaturvedi, it rebranded itself as Clovia in June two years ago.
It incurred losses of Rs 9.5 crore on total sales of Rs30 crore in 2015-16, according to VCCEdge, the research arm of News Corp VCCircle.
Actoserba Active Wholesale Pvt Ltd., which owns Zivame, saw its losses widen to Rs54 crore in 2015-16 from Rs29.5 crore in the previous fiscal, while sales grew 38 percent to Rs62.6 crore.
Zivame has raised $46.6 million till date from a clutch of investors including Kalaari Capital, Zodius Advisors and angel investor Ratan Tata.
Its chief executive officer Richa Kar quit the six-year-old start-up last month.
Key players in the lingerie market
In India, the lingerie market has players such as Zivame, Clovia, Amante and Lovable, giving competition to established brands such as Triumph, Jockey, Rupa and Lux.
"The growing number of working women and the increased share of western wear in their wardrobe have propelled this growth," according to listed innerwear maker Lovable Lingerie in its FY2016 annual report.
"...changing preference is no longer restricted to just the metros, but has spread to mini metros, tier-I, -II and-III cities. This openness to indulge in branded lingerie has led to a growth in the number of international and domestic innerwear brands present in India," the report said.
The innerwear market is further divided into super-premium, premium, medium, and economy segments, with mid-premium segment makes up 52 percent for lingerie.
Lovable Lingerie's net profit for the December 2016 quarter was Rs15 lakh on total sales of Rs4,039 lakh (Rs 40.39 crore). Its total sales in 2015-16 stood at Rs196.77 crore.
Triumph entered India in July 2002 with operations in six cities and today, retails its range of lingerie in 52 cities through a chain of its own stories and leading retailers.
