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Lifestyle brand, The Souled Store has raised ₹135 crore (~$16 million) funding round led by Xponentia Capital, along with the participation of Elevation Capital and RPSG Capital.
The company plans to utilise the fresh capital for expanding into new categories and launching over 100 stores pan India within the next 2 years. The investment will also be used to offer a buyback of 100 per cent of vested employee options, this will be benefit around 30 Souled Store employees. The Souled Store is at an annualised revenue of ₹450+ crore GMV and has raised ₹85 crore to date.
Started as a fan merchandise brand, The Souled Store is now making almost half of its revenue from non-fan merchandise. The brand was founded by Vedang Patel, Aditya Sharma, Rohin Samtaney, and Harsh Lal in 2013. Currently, 70 per cent of revenue comes from their app/ website, 15 per cent from offline stores, and 15 per cent from online marketplaces. 60 per cent of revenue comes from outside the top 10 cities and the new offline stores are expected to help deepen the brand’s presence in tier 2 & 3 cities.
Growing categories
Commenting on the development, Vedang Patel, CEO said, “Our design first thinking, high product quality, and deep understanding of the youth has helped us become a truly distinguished brand, and we plan to capitalise our high brand equity to grow current categories & foray into other lifestyle products. We are also expanding our offline presence & intend to create destination stores that would excite our customers. The Souled Store further aims to reach ₹1500 crore in revenue over the next three years and then go public”
Adding to this, PR Srinivasan, Managing Partner, Xponentia Capital Partners said, “Xponentia seeks to work with entrepreneurial teams that are setting new standards to disrupt their markets & create high growth business models. The Souled Store has established a distinctive brand and is in the process of creating a large community that identifies & relates with its casual wear products. We look forward to supporting Vedang & his team as The Souled Store continues to innovate and delight its customers.”
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