Excl: Lingerie e-tailer Zivame raised more funding from existing investors Kalaari and IDG Ventures

Lingerie e-tailer Zivame.com, run by Bangalore-based Actoserba Active Wholesale Pvt Ltd, raised more funds from existing investors Kalaari Capital and IDG Ventures, sources told Techcircle.in.

The two investors had originally committed funds in the Series A round of funding of the startup in March 2012. At that time, the quantum of funding was not disclosed. For details on the transactions, click here.

When contacted by Techcircle.in, Richa Kar, co-founder and CEO, Zivame, denied any fresh fundraising by the firm.

It could not be immediately ascertained if the fresh funding was a follow-on investment tranche of the previously announced Series A or a bridge round. Firms in e-commerce have been facing a funding crunch though some have managed to raise significant capital. Flipkart raised $200 million in a fresh round making it the biggest ever funding deal in the new generation tech business. Snapdeal also scooped a significant sum while Yebhi raised a bridge round.

Email queries sent to both IDG Ventures and Kalaari Capital spokespersons did not elicit any response.

Zivame started operations in August 2011 and deals in lingerie, loungewear, swimwear, nightwear and allied categories.

In an earlier interaction in October last year Kar had shared that the startup was growing 50 per cent month on month. She had shared that the women-focused e-tailer was shipping 500-600 orders a day with the average transaction value being upwards of Rs 1,200. It came out to about 15,000-18,000 orders a month and around Rs 2 crore in GMV (gross merchandise value) per month, given the average basket size back then.

Since then, the portal has gone through certain changes and recently added categories like fashion apparel to its offerings.

Offering a mix of content and consultation for women to help them buy the right product and selling affordable but branded products have proved to be the right recipe for Zivame so far, as per Kar.

Online lingerie shopping, as a trend, is also gearing up. Some other active players in the segment are MyLace, StrapsAndStrings, ShopImagine, Oyegirl, Cilory, HerStyle and PrettySecrets, which recently got funding from Indian Angel Network, Harvard Angels and Orios Ventures.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)