Zovi.com raised $5.5 Million from SAIF Partners
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Zovi.com raised $5.5 Million from SAIF Partners
Bangalore: Zovi, an online clothing brand in India, has raised $5.5 million from PE firm SAIF Partners and angel investors like MakeMyTrip founder Deep Kalra. Kalra has also joined the board of the company. The fund will be utilized for the expansion of its supply chain, inventory and product range. Satish Mani, former senior vice-president of Cleartrip, founded Zovi. Its senior management includes Kavindra Mishra and Sartaj Mehta, both from Benetton India. Setup as an entrepreneur-inresidence project (EIR) where the venture fund picks an entrepreneur to execute a pre-conceived idea, the company will showcase men's apparel designed in-house, such as formal shirts and belts. Mani will drive operations at the company aiming at broadening its product range to club in women's apparel by end of this year. Ravi Adusumalli, Managing Partner, SAIF Partners, said that they are excited to have a complementary skill set of technology and fashion within the core team, who have build a world class product offering over the past few months. The firm manages a total corpus of $4 billion for investments in India and China, was scouting around for an investment opportunity in home shopping in 2006. They successfully funded Chinese online clothing retailer Vancl.com. Mukul Singhal, Vice-President, SAIF Partners, said that the e-commerce is growing rapidly in India due to internet penetration, compelling value and convenience that are driving urban consumers towards online transactions. Their Indian e-commerce portfolio includes MakyMyTrip, HomeShop18, Inkfruit One97 Communications, Just Dial and FirstCry. They also have invested in companies like Speciality Restaurant, Network 18, TV9 and the National Stock Exchange.