Sachin Tendulkar backed celebrity fashion company Sportsbiz has raised $13.5 million (around INR 100 Crores) in Series E round of funding from the venture capital firm Accel Partners. Existing investor Alteria Capital has invested $1 million into Sportsbiz in the funding round. Debt capital firm Alteria Capital has earlier invested $4.6 million in the firm in March this year.
Anjana Reddy, founder and CEO of Sportsbiz spoke to YourStory, “In the past three years, we have focussed on building a brand and ensuring that there is a presence in both online and offline channels. With this fundraising, we want to focus on growth for our brand and bring in 1,000 points of sales in two years. We strongly believe that each of USPL’s brands has the potential to emerge as a multi-million dollar global brand, and with this investment, there is no looking back.”
Universal Sportsbiz Private Limited, the legal company behind Sportsbiz will utilize the freshly raised capital to expand its portfolio of brands and improve its technology to optimize the business processes. USPL aims to bring the edge through an overall omnichannel focus instead of focusing on online or offline model separately.
On the investment, Mahendran Balachandran, Partner at Accel Partners India, said in a press statement, “In the competitive world of retail fashion, Anjana and her team have successfully built brands. The company has added tremendous value through its differentiated brands and as it moves forward to accelerate growth, we are excited to strengthen our partnership with them.”
Anjana has also founded Collectabillia.com, a celebrity commerce company offering a platform to fans to own memorabilia personally autographed by their icons. Collectabillia has also raised more than INR 63 crores in two venture equity rounds since its inception in 2010. It launched its auction platform during the 2012 season of the IPL partnering with master blaster Sachin Tendulkar exclusively to auction limited edition merchandise post his historical ‘hundredth, hundred’.
Speaking to YourStory, Vinod Murali, Cofounder and Managing Partner, Alteria Capital said, “Anjana and her team have been extremely creative and diligent in building strong brands like Wrogn and Imara, which has resulted in a strong consumer brand platform. The company has a deep understanding of the Indian consumer’s needs and collaborates well with celebrities to accelerate growth. We are very excited to contribute further to this fantastic journey.”
USPL owns brands like Wrogn, Imara and Ms Taken and currently retails at more than 200 POS outlets across 34 Indian cities. The company plans to launch multiple brands and focus on launching operations in smaller cities across the nation. The Bengaluru-based company has raised around $33.4 million in total funding in 3 venture equity and debt rounds since its inception in 2012.
The development was firstly reported by YourStory.
