Zodius Capital increases its stake in Zivame to 45%, buys out Kalaari Capital and IDG Ventures shares

Mumbai based technology-focused investment firm Zodius capital has increased its stake in lingerie retailer Zivame by buying out shares held by early venture capital backers, Kalaari Capital and IDG Ventures India. According to sources, the management changes seen last year after the movement of Richa Kar from operational role results this incidence that the invest firm is now holding at least 45% stake in the company.

Both Kalaari and IDG Ventures had invested in Zivame in early 2012. The amount for which they sold the stake or Zivame's current valuation could not be ascertained.
Shilpa Kulkarni, managing director at Zodius and board member of Zivame, confirmed the development to ET.

Zivame has so far raised about $50 million from investors including Unilazer Ventures, IDG Ventures India, Kalaari Capital, Ratan Tata, Zodius Technology Fund, and Malaysia's Khazanah Nasional Bhd. At the time of its last fund raising in September 2015 from Zodius and Khazanah, it was reportedly valued over $100 million.

After the movement of Zivame's founder Richa Kar from the operational role in January 2017, Shaleen Sinha had taken over the role. Recently, Zivame appointed Amisha Jain as the CEO.

Founded in 2011 by Richa Kar as an collection of lingerie brands under Bengaluru based Actoserba Active Wholesale Pvt. Ltd, Zivame was pivoted to a private label business in a bid to improve its margins in September 2016 and thereby boost its revenues. Zivame has established over 26 brand stores in the last one and a half years and aims to reach 100 stores by the end of 2019. For this, it has set aside an investment of $4.45 million-$5.93 million (INR 30-40 Cr).

Zivame is facing tough competition from Clovia which is fast catching up, in terms of revenues. Besides Clovia, Zivame competes with Buttercups, Pretty Secrets, Cilory and Shyaway, among others.
Zivame has seen its first-ever dip in revenue since its launch for the financial year 2016-17. It recorded net sales of Rs 52.9 crore, down about 15% from Rs 62.6 crore in the previous fiscal. Its losses stood at Rs 57.6 crore for 2016-17, wider than Rs 54.1 crore in the year before that.

According to a report by Franchise India, the lingerie market in India is valued at about $3 billion, growing at a CAGR of 42.32% between 2014 and 2019. Zivame is looking for a fresh phase of growth and aiming to push more offline presence with Zodius increasing its stake in the company.