Bewakoof, an online retailer, has secured INR 80 crore as part of fresh funding round from Investcorp, reported Inc42.
While, the fresh funds are expected to be used for investing in technology and hiring new talent, Investcorp has provided nearly 90 per cent of funding and would hold around 14 per cent stake in Bewakoof with a seat on the board.
Prabhkiran Singh, cofounder, Bewakoof said that the company’s first focus will be to further strengthen its platform and capture consumer data to improve their experience on the website by using machine learning.
“We will be investing in our technology back-end, along with category expansion,” Singh added.
Bewakoof was founded in 2012 by Prabhkiran Singh and Siddharth Munot. It is a direct-to-consumer online fashion retailer. The company Bewakoof started with its focus on theme-based T-shirts and has now branched out into other categories.
This includes hoodies and sweaters, joggers, pants and trousers, footwear, mobile covers, notebooks and backpacks. The firm sells most of its merchandise through its website and mobile application.
“This is the first institutional funding round in the company. The firm has, so far, worked with very little capital and has focused on its bottom line as well as its topline. Therefore, it has been profitable for the last four years and is one of the few internet startups in the country to have done that,” said Gaurav Sharma, co-head of private equity at Investcorp India, as reported.
As per the company website, it has sold over 1 crore products and over 60 Lakh app downloads since its inception.
According to Technavio, the Indian online fashion market is estimated to hit $12 Bn-$14 Bn by 2020, and the market.
Similar to Bewakoof, other rising e-commerce platform include Chumbak, TheSouledStore, House of Masaba, Disrupt, Happily Unmarried and more.